HACKENSACK—A new, block-style, ballot where candidates for one office are grouped together—rather than the traditional party line ballot layout—is mandated for the first time ever in the Democratic primary election, June 4.
That’s thanks to a March 29 federal district judge’s ruling that called New Jersey’s traditional party-line ballots unconstitutional.
Bergen County Clerk John Hogan tells Pascack Press that his officials were ready to make the switch in case the decision was made to abolish the county line ballot layout used for nearly a century in New Jersey.
According to the lawsuit, the county line ballot was alleged to favor the hand-picked party candidates with the most favorable ballot position.
“We had a mockup of the new block ballot before the decision came down,” Hogan told Pascack Press on April 8. He said the county elections officials had received “no direction from the state” election officials on what to do.
New Jersey was the last state to move to block-style ballots. The June 4 primary allows registered voters of the Democratic and Republican parties to select each party’s General Election (November) candidates for federal, state, county, and local elected offices.
However the judge in the lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, said the Republican primary ballot, which also uses the party-line layout, will not change this year. That ballot was not part of the lawsuit.
Quraishi’s ruling follows a February lawsuit brought by Rep. Andy Kim, D-Burlington, alleging that New Jersey’s Democratic Party primary ballot county-line design was unconstitutional and anti-democratic.
Kim’s lawsuit followed New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy’s entrance in November 2023 as a candidate for U.S. Senator Robert Menedez’s seat in the Democratic primary.
Murphy quickly secured several county line endorsements in counties where party leaders were alleged to pressure party committee people to vote for her; where secret ballots were conducted for the party line, Kim won to the top ballot position.
Kim is front-runner for the Democratic nomination to replace indicted U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez in November, following Tammy Murphy’s withdrawal from the race on March 24.
Menendez, whose corruption trial begins May 6, said he won’t seek reelection as a Democrat but might enter the race as an Independent if he is exonerated.
Bergen County Clerk John Hogan said that his office had done a mockup of the block ballot for the Democratic primary before the decision was handed down in late March.
He said the county clerk’s elections office is “right on target” for meeting all state-mandated primary election deadlines including the April 20 deadline for commencement of mailing of mail-in ballots for Primary election (45 days before election).
Moreover, May 22 is the state elections deadline to start mailing primary election sample ballots, he said. Early primary voting runs May 29–June 2 in Bergen County and statewide. The county offers nine early voting sites, including in River Vale and Woodcliff Lake.
Hogan said his office planned to hold information sessions on the block ballot format approved for the Democratic Party in the June 4 primary election. The county’s how-to-vote video will be revised to reflect the new format, he said.
Hogan said oral arguments were scheduled April 12 in an appeal of Quraishi’s decision filed with the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals by the Camden County Democratic Committee, Morris County Republican Committee, and New Jersey Republican Chairs Committee, in an effort to maintain the party-line ballot system.
It was not clear when the Republican Party’s county line ballot format would be changed to a block format.
