What is “the Line”?

The Line refers to an inherent Ballot design structure unique to NJ that lists candidates according to an endorsed slate versus according to the office they seek. A typical primary ballot design in other states lists candidates according to the office they are seeking, for example, Nevada and Delaware:

This is what a NJ Primary Ballot typically looks like:

Being on the Line provides candidates with an unfair advantage. New Jersey Policy Perspective looked at 10 primary races and found:

Candidates performed better when they were included on the county line than when they were not, in nine of the ten contests. The most substantial difference in performance was in the four contests in which different candidates were on the county line in different counties in the same congressional district (see Figure 15). In those four contests, the average vote margin between appearing on the county line and having your opponent on the county line was 35 percentage points Link

Why everyone is talking about it now.

Senate Candidate Andy Kim filed a lawsuit in February against 21 counties, challenging the line. Union County approved $20,000 of taxpayer funds to fund a defense of County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi and the Line.  Union County residents had their tax dollars used to fund a defense of a politicized, unfair ballot system.  As a result of this lawsuit, the Judge issued a preliminary injunction for this June’s primary.  

However, county clerks have doubled down and filed an appeal.  Additionally, the injunction only applied to Democratic primaries – Republicans are still permitted to use the Line:

This court declines to extend the scope of its decision beyond the limitations of the present litigation,” Quraishi said in an order today. “Nonetheless, nothing in this court’s March 29, 2024 Order prevents the Republican Party and its leadership from appreciating this Court’s preliminary injunction and taking steps to amend the ballot system for its primary election similar to what this court has ordered for the Democratic Primary. Link

In other words, this victory is only partial, can be temporary, and even overturned.  With Ms. Murphy dropping out of the race, legal experts have questioned whether the suit can proceed.

Connection to Berkeley Heights.

Union County Clerk, Joanne Rajoppi, has a checkered history regarding ballot design. In 2022, a highly controversial ballot design led to two BOE candidates (Akiri and Joly) sharing a split position on the tail end of a ballot. We know that one Berkeley Heights Republican operative who served on the Board of Elections was hostile to Ms. Akiri’s candidacy.  

Even in those ballot positions, Ms Akiri and Ms. Joly each received over 1500 votes that election, which is pretty incredible considering what the ballot looked like. While this recent decision would not have impacted the 2022 BOE ballot positions, it demonstrates how easily political machines and their operatives can manipulate ballots to rig elections.  Even elections that should not be partisan.

Town Council Member Margaret Illis and 2023 Republican Town Council Candidate Edmund Tom Maciejewski have made public statements opposing the Line. During an April 8th, 2023 interview on Nightwatch Mr. Maciejewski stated:

So how the candidates are decided, who decides who those candidates are in the Line for the local election is the Republican Municipal committee and you have a group it’s 22 people – two people from each district one male one female from each district – they are elected however most people don’t know who they are and also they get to put themselves on the Line…..they get they get to give themselves an advantage by putting themselves on the Line and when we talk about the Line it’s on the ballot ….it’s visual thing where it’s just straight down so maybe somebody wanted to vote for Donald Trump and they didn’t know who was running locally so….they just go down this Line and assume that somehow Donald Trump endorses whoever’s running on the local ballot.

I think it’s just really unfair for the people who aren’t the insiders so if you’re an Insider you get basically all the advantages that that Line gives along you know…there’s other things like even the ballot positioning they always will get….they will get bracketed with the top candidate.

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