A special Assembly committee continued its work this week to design a better election ballot for New Jersey.
Just a few days after the presidential and congressional elections, advocates lined up to speak before the committee to make their case for what would be a fair ballot for all going forward, while also criticizing the panel for its low-profile proceedings.
“Giving inadequate notice for both hearings so far and holding the first hearing with public participation less than two days after one of the most consequential elections of our times is undemocratic and does not inspire confidence,” said Nuzhat Chowdhury, a senior counsel with the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
The proceedings came out of a grassroots movement and court battles over the last year to abolish New Jersey’s existing “county line” or “party line” ballot, where the county party organizations’ choice gets top billing. A federal judge agreed with the critics’ arguments that the design was unfair to other candidates, and the ballot was ordered to be re-designed for last summer’s Democratic primary.
Now the panel is looking at a statewide remedy, but some of those who testified were skeptical…
“Anything that’s not a clean ballot in terms of just a list of candidates in an office block style — nothing differentiating them — is not ideal,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers associate professor who has done extensive research on the ballot design’s impact.