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Party leaders give preferential placement to their candidates. Those not on the county line are tucked away in obscure rows and columns. Julia Sass Rubin of Rutgers University
looked at 20 years of New Jersey races and found that the county line steered voters and helped preferred candidates by an average difference of 38%.

“I think people will start to speak up and you’ll see more people entering contests,” said Julia Sass Rubin. “You will see more pushback … We’ll see more bravery.”

The state’s powerful political machines, which have dominated Garden State politics and dictated its policies for much of the last century, lost their most potent tool — the “county line” primary ballot.

“I think the voters are smart and they are discerning and we have to expect more of them,” said Julia Sass Rubin, an associate professor with Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. “We have to provide them with information to make those decisions. That’s something New Jersey really hasn’t done.”

The state’s powerful political machines, which have dominated Garden State politics and dictated its policies for much of the last century, lost their most potent tool — the “county line” primary ballot.