“The sad thing is that in New Jersey, for the most part, our politicians — especially at the legislative and county level — they don’t know what campaigning means,” said Julia Sass Rubin
Topic
ballots
What your 2025 primary ballot might look like
“Anything they’re doing, they’re doing to maintain some favoritism for them, some advantage on the ballot, which means it’s not a fair ballot,” said Rutgers Professor Julia Sass Rubin, whose research was cited in overturning the county line. “The point of the ballot is to have a fair way for voters to indicate their preference.”
What ballot design would make NJ elections fair?
“The [elected] position would be at the top; there would be the names of all the candidates beneath that,” said Rubin. “It would be clear visually for people to look at it and understand what the position is, how many people they should vote for.
How jittery are NJ lawmakers about ballot design?
“Do you want a horrible ballot, or do you just want a terrible ballot, I guess is what you’re asking me,” Rubin replied to Barlas. “I would say, let’s go for a fair ballot.”
NJ’s ballot design: What’s fair for all?
“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.
Members of the public chime in on lawmakers’ push to redesign ballots
“I think it’s still a very unfair ballot,” Rubin said. “I would say let’s go for a fair ballot.”
Opinion: The county line is dead. So why is the Legislature revisiting NJ ballots? | Stile
“The line is just one of the ways you can distort the ballot,” Julia Sass Rubin said. “So I think we just have to be incredibly vigilant, and there’s good reason to be concerned.”
NJ lawmakers say they should design ballots themselves
“The line is just one of the ways you can distort the ballot,” Julia Sass Rubin said. “So I think we just have to be incredibly vigilant, and there’s good reason to be concerned.”
NJ Primary elections are June 6, and there’s little competition
Few of the races in the June 6 New Jersey legislative primary are contested, even though there about twice as many open seats as usual. Political experts say that's in part due to the "county line" system that gives a boost to candidates endorsed by powerful county...
Seton Hall Law Symposium Examines New Jersey’s ‘County Line’ Ballots
New Jersey is the only state in the nation in which county party bosses are able to choose where candidates are positioned on the ballot. This arguably assures that the candidates bracketed together in a vertical or horizontal line by the respective two-party...