The way Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi explains it sounds pretty straightforward. “The whole design of a ballot is not to confuse the voter, that they can easily see the office for which they are voting and to easily see the candidates,” she says. And the court agreed, putting a stop to the use of what many think is a convoluted ballot design for the recent Senate primaries.
A star witness was Rutgers Professor Julia Sass Rubin, who did the research. “I’m hoping for the best. I think there is certainly an argument to be made that there is a role for them to go beyond the court ruling and improve our ballots.
Ruben says she has not been invited to testify but has a few suggestions.
“Right now in New Jersey whoever gets drawn out of the bin first gets that advantage, and that’s really not fair. So what some states have done, at least 15 states, is that they randomize the order by voting precinct, which is the smallest geographic unit, and that way each person appears roughly the same number of times – first, second, third, depending on how many candidates there are. So that would be the most important thing they could do. And if they do that you would really do that through a computer program.” as opposed to the county clerk pulling names out of a box.
