“One of the biggest surprises of the election was how close the presidential race was in New Jersey. A state that President Joe Biden had won by 16 points four years ago gave Vice President Kamala Harris only a six-point margin of victory.”
Topic
voting
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.”
Is this the end for NJ’s ‘county line’ ballots?
“[Fighting the challenges] doesn’t seem that it’s a good use of taxpayer dollars, and I suspect that most taxpayers would not want their taxpayer dollars spent that way,” Rubin said. “But I suspect that if more county clerks choose to settle, that it will impact Republicans the same way.
Primary results suggest absence of ‘party line’ made a difference
“It’s early as the votes are still being counted but it certainly looks like not having a county line shakes things up, especially in the less high-profile races where the county line matters the most,” said Julia Sass Rubin
NJ primary election night results 2024 | NJ Decides
With more mail-in ballots left to count, it’s still too early to tell what impact the suspension of the party line may have had on Democratic candidates.