Middlesex, Burlington clerks reach agreement to stop use of county-line ballots

The 2020 primary ballot in Monmouth County shows how Neptune Township committee candidate Kevin McMillan was placed in the sixth column, stranded in what critics of this ballot design have called “ballot Siberia.”

Clerks in Middlesex and Burlington counties have reached a settlement with attorneys for Rep. Andy Kim that will stop the use of controversial county-line ballots.

The agreements , which a U.S. District Court judge approved Thursday, bar the counties from preparing ballots that group candidates by any measure other an office sought, ending the two counties’ fights over the future of the county line — a ballot design, unique to New Jersey, that groups candidates by slogan and which critics say gives party-backed candidates an unfair advantage at the polls.

“New Jersey voters deserve a fair ballot and I won’t stop fighting until we get one,” Kim (D-03) said in a statement. “I’m hopeful this will spark momentum to get all counties to permanently abide by the historic ruling made by the Federal District Court in New Jersey and upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We are building a new era of politics in New Jersey.”

Kim sued most of New Jersey’s county clerks in February when he was embroiled in a fight for the Democratic nod for U.S. Senate with first lady Tammy Murphy, who had the backing of key party officials. Kim and two congressional candidates argued the ballot design improperly advantaged some candidates and infringed on associational freedoms.

The agreements bar clerks from preparing ballots that do the following:

• Arrange candidates by columns or rows, rather than by office sought.
• Position candidates on the primary ballot automatically based upon a ballot draw for candidates for a different office.
• Place an “incongruous separation” between candidates for the same offices.
• Bracket candidates together so that candidates for different offices are featured in the same column or row.
• Place candidates underneath another candidate seeking the same office if the rest of the candidates are listed horizontally.

Burlington County will pay $25,000 in attorneys fees as part of the settlement in the Kim case, while Middlesex will pay $32,533.

The settlement comes months after U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi barred the use of county lines in June’s Democratic primaries via a preliminary injunction. Quraishi found that Kim and his two co-plaintiffs would likely win on the merits if the case came to trial. Clerks’ attempts to appeal the decision were unsuccessful, and in June, they printed primary ballots that eschewed the county line and instead grouped Democrats by office sought, known as office-block ballots.

Praise to those who helped deliver a near-fatal blow to New Jersey’s county line

Burlington County Clerk Joann Schwartz, who went beyond Quraishi’s order and also printed office-block ballots for June’s Republican primary, has simultaneously proposed an identical settlement in a similar case lodged by former congressional candidate Christine Conforti that also challenged the constitutionality of county lines. Quraishi is hearing that case, too.

Burlington County agreed to pay $7,500 in counsel fees for the Conforti case.

The Middlesex County Democratic Organization, which intervened in the Conforti case, also proposed a settlement that would remove it from that case and bar it from intervening in litigation challenging Quraishi’s preliminary injunction against party lines.

Politico New Jersey on Wednesday reported settlement proposals were looming from the two counties. The New Jersey Monitor in August reported the parties were approaching settlement talks .

Numerous other county clerks remain party to the litigation.

“We hope that today’s announcement encourages the remaining county clerks to stop wasting taxpayer dollars and that the remaining litigants embrace the inevitable. Until then, we are prepared to continue to seek a final court judgment and are confident that we will ultimately prevail,” said Antoinette Miles, state director for New Jersey Working Families, a plaintiff in the Conforti case.

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