Attorneys for Burlington and Middlesex counties have sent a settlement agreement to a federal judge in which the clerks for those two counties agreed they will not issue primary election ballots that are in the long-used county line format. The ballot will now have to be organized by the office sought.
The settlement between the counties and attorneys for Rep. Andy Kim, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, was sent to District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi on Sept. 12 and represents the latest win for Kim in a struggle he initiated in February when he was embroiled in a fight for the Senate nomination with first lady Tammy Murphy.
The county line format allowed clerks to structure ballots around a group of candidates endorsed by their Republican or Democratic county party organizations. Critics argued that it gave party organizations greater power and discouraged candidates who were not going to get the county organization nod.
Kim prevailed in court, but the decision only affected the 2024 primary and only the Democratic party ballots. The federal district court ruling was appealed to and upheld by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a statement following the settlement proposal, Kim said, “New Jersey voters deserve a fair ballot, and I will not stop fighting until they get one. We are building a new era of politics in New Jersey.” The two counties will pay a combined total of $57,533 in Kim’s attorney fees.
In March, former Superior Court Judge and current Cape May County Republican organization chairman Michael Donohue disagreed with the court ruling, arguing that “a federal court moved aside the entire New Jersey Legislature and became an uber-lawmaker rewriting New Jersey election statutes.” He went on to call the decision “an outrageous destruction of our freedom of association.” Cape May County retained the county line format for Republican ballots in the 2024 primary.
Opponents of the county line ballot hope that this settlement will lead to a domino effect across the state’s counties.
It is not clear that the powerful county political organizations have lost the fight entirely. Settlement agreements, even if approved by the courts, could still be superseded by state legislative action.
In a rare joint statement back in March, the majority and minority leaders of the state Senate and Assembly vowed to bring forward legislation that would set rules for ballot design. They argued jointly that the Legislature is the best place to address issues around the design of the ballot.
