Judge scraps controversial ‘county line’ on primary election ballot

March 29, 2024

A federal judge on Friday took the “extraordinary” step of stopping the use of the preferential “county line” on ballots in this June’s primary elections. The decision is a big win for U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-3rd), now the front-runner for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, and progressive groups that have fought the system for years.

In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid N. Quraishi granted the preliminary injunction sought by Kim to prevent the use of county-line bracketing on the primary ballots in June.

The ruling appears to end the use of the county line not just for the Senate race, but for all seats on the ballot and for both Democratic and Republican candidates.

A loud outcry followed, with grassroots Democrats crying foul and backing Kim. At the subsequent county party nominating conventions earlier this year, Kim won almost all of those in which there was a secret ballot — including in Murphy’s home county of Monmouth — while Murphy won the large counties with strong party-boss structures and where delegates had to publicly declare their votes by a show of hands.

Rutgers University professor Julia Sass Rubin, who has analyzed the impact of the county line in elections, published a study last year that detailed the advantage it gives to candidates who have the line. She found that legislative incumbents who had the party line in all the counties in which they were running over the last two decades won the nomination almost 99% of the time and that in federal elections, candidates who appeared on the county line performed an average of 38 percentage points better than their opponents.

NJ Spotlight News March 29, 2024

Recent Posts

A Statistician’s Life, Celebrating Black History Month

Sharifa Z. Williams is an Assistant Professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey The following article was published by the Membership Magazine of the American Statistical Association on February 3,...

The Future of Local News in New Jersey? It’s Adapting.

Rutgers Today, February 18, 2025 Rutgers policy expert Marc Pfeiffer discusses the decline of print, the rise of digital media, and what it means for New Jersey communities. With The Star-Ledger ending its print edition and The Jersey Journal shutting down, New...

Lindenfeld Assesses Substance Use Services Ads in NY

What substance use services are advertised by local governments? An analysis of data from county websites in New York state Objective To assess the substance use disorder (SUD) prevention and response activities that county governments in New York advertise. Study...

A Valentine’s Inspired Interview with the Poppers

Frank J. Popper is Professor Emeritus in the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, where he also participated in the American Studies, Geography, and Political Science Departments and the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. He...

VTC-POET: Springwood Avenue Heritage Walk

Did you know that between the 1930s and 1970s, the West Side of Asbury Park, NJ, was a vibrant hub of African American life and culture? The community, shaped by Black and African American, Italian, Jewish, and Latino residents and business owners, created famous...

Upcoming Events

[tribe_events view="list" tribe-bar="false" events_per_page="3" filter-bar="false"]