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%.
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Julia Rubin and Rutgers Experts Make History on Party Line
“One of the impacts of the county line has been discouraging those who do not receive the party’s endorsement from running. Candidates understand that running off the line is ineffective so they tend to drop out if they are not selected for the line.”
Could the end of the NJ county line doom county political machines? Some wonder
“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.”
Abolishing the “Ballot Line” Will Reshape Progressive Politics
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.
Hudson County primary steps up as ‘county-line’ ruling sets in
“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.”
New Jersey politics will never be the same – Opinion Rubin
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.
New Jersey Ballot Ruling Applies Only to Democratic Race, Judge Says
“It’s just a hiccup,” Dr. Rubin said. “If this decision holds, it will completely upend New Jersey politics.”
A judge’s decision is sending shockwaves through N.J., where politics is ruled by backroom deals
It’s called the “county line” — and it’s been the stuff of backroom Jersey politics that allowed party bosses to play an outsized role for decades in determining the winners and losers on election day. Now, a federal judge may have changed all of that with a 49-page ruling Friday that sent shockwaves through the state and could forever curb the power of those bosses.
Federal ruling on ‘county line’ ballots draws praise
Julia Sass Rubin, a professor at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Public Policy whose analysis of the system proved damning, says the case is “just the beginning, assuming the decision holds, which I think it should and hope that it will. It’s really just the opening of the door.”
Here’s how Andy Kim’s bombshell court win will remake Jersey politics
“Democracy is about voters deciding,” says Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers professor and an expert witness in the federal suit that challenged the line. “We don’t need to be protected from democracy by four or five people who think they know better what’s good for us.”
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