Voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide their parties’ nominees for downballot offices in five states, including one that’s in for a historic primary night.
In March, a federal judge granted Rep. Andy Kim’s request to bar New Jersey election officials from printing ballots for the Democratic primary that give certain candidates favorable placement, a practice known as the “county line.” The old system allowed parties to give preferential treatment to their endorsed candidates, putting them in a prominent location while relegating others to less visible spots derided as “ballot Siberia.”
That design conferred an extreme advantage: Rutgers professor Julia Sass Rubin concluded that between 2002 and 2022, candidates on the county line enjoyed an average boost of 38 points. Instead, the court ordered the counties to prepare ballots “organized by office sought”—the system used in every other state.
