The county line is officially gone with a new primary ballot design for New Jersey, but advocates may sue again

New Jersey has a new primary ballot design now that Gov. Phil Murphy has signed it into law — though it remains to be seen whether it the measure will be challenged in court.

With the governor’s quiet approval last week, the new rules of the ballot shepherd the state into a new era of primary elections.

The main purpose of the ballot overhaul is to organize candidates by the office they’re seeking, getting rid of the longstanding county line design. The county line grouped together party-endorsed candidates and put outsiders not supported by their county political establishment at a disadvantage by listing them on less prominent positions on the ballot.

The death of the county line ballot is a victory for candidates who want to run for office without the prized endorsement of their county party committee, and it can motivate more candidates to throw their hat in the ring to compete for support from voters, not party bosses. This year, 10 candidates are running for governor.

But progressive advocates say the new design still has issues reminiscent of the old design, in part because it still groups together certain candidates in a way that could favor the establishment. The new law provides design guidelines for clerks to create primary ballots for their counties, but the plan for the ballot is currently just words on a page. The new ballots will be created in time for the June 10 primary.

The state legislature began this initiative in the fall after a judge ordered the ballot redesigned for last year’s Democratic primary when now-Sen. Andy Kim and others argued the state’s county line ballot design violated their rights as candidates.

» READ MORE: What you need to know about the federal court ruling against ‘the county line’ in N.J. elections

The line was abolished in the Democratic primary last year as a temporary fix, and legislators found themselves at the drawing board over the past several months juggling how to make the ballot more fair while still controlling whatever elements they can.

“They had to cope with this in a way that they hadn’t before, and really figure out what are the things that we have to do, while also thinking through what are the things that we could potentially get away with,” said Antoinette Miles, the director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, who opposes the line.

Miles was part of a group of nearly 80 activist groups that called on Murphy to issue a conditional veto of the ballot design bill to address its elements they saw as getting in the way of progress, but Murphy ignored it.

On Wednesday, nearly a week after signing the bill, Murphy said on the Ask Governor Murphy radio show that he disagrees with advocates that the new ballot design is unfair, but he didn’t have a problem with the county line in the first place.

Murphy, who was elected with establishment support, has long supported the county line design, differing from Matt Platkin, his appointed attorney general, on whether the line was constitutional. The governor opposed Kim’s lawsuit, and Murphy’s wife, first lady Tammy Murphy, dropped out of a primary for U.S. Senate against Kim last year when the county line was at risk, which was expected to benefit her in the race.

“Is it perfect? I’m not sure it is,” Murphy said of the new design. “Will it work? I assume it will, but like a lot of other things we do, we’ll assess it, we’ll, based on the facts, and if we think we need to tweak it down the road, we’ll tweak it.”

Miles said she would have appreciated Murphy providing more rationale about his decision. Murphy on Thursday declined to comment beyond his remarks on the radio.

The new ballot is a big improvement from the old system, but it still has the footprint of politicians hoping to maintain a leg-up for the political establishment, according to advocates like Miles.

The new ballot design continues old practices that advocates argue are archaic, like allowing county clerks to draw names from a box or a Bingo machine to determine the order of the candidates on the ballot instead of a more modern randomizer. Whoever is picked first will be listed first on every ballot in a given county, rather than having a different order for each precinct like advocates like Miles sought.

» READ MORE: New Jersey ballots will look different this year. Here’s what was considered.

The final design also got rid of font design standards the Assembly created in conjunction with the Center for Civic Design, and it allows clerks to use a letter and numbering system for the boxes on the ballot so campaigns and party establishments can guide voters on which candidates to support. According to Miles, this practice is just another way to “manipulate the ballot in a way that guides the voters towards a certain choice of candidates.”

Candidates will also be able to “associate” with other candidates across the ballot by sharing a common slogan or endorsement accompanying their name.

The most controversial aspect of the ballot is that multiple candidates running for an office that has more than one open seat (like in the Assembly, where each district has two representatives) will be able to be grouped together and drawn for the same ballot position, listed one after another. Grouped candidates will statistically have a higher chance of being listed first, which advocates argue violates the judge’s ruling last year.

The new law also gets rid of state committee party elections, making the positions appointed by county committees instead of showing up on the ballot. Through a separate new law signed by Murphy, the legislature increased the number of signatures required to be on the ballot, which advocates also lament.

Kim said the new ballot design law “falls short of what voters deserve” after Murphy signed it last week.

“Almost exactly a year ago I testified in court to fix NJ’s broken ballot and make our politics more fair,” Kim said on X. “The simple premise was to have every candidate treated exactly the same on the ballot. ... At a time when Trump is inflaming political corruption, we must prioritize restoring trust from the people.”

Miles said progressive advocates are “seriously deliberating” taking legal action against the bill.

If they file a lawsuit, it’s currently unclear whether they would do so before or after the primary takes place.

“We know what it takes to take down an unconstitutional ballot,” Miles said. " … we are trying to answer many questions about how this new law would impact voters and candidates.”

Kim said he will “keep fighting to fix our broken politics in NJ and Washington” when condemning the new ballot, but his team declined to elaborate on what that means regarding the ballot design. But two progressive candidates for governor signaled they’re open to a lawsuit, each describing the new design as just going halfway towards progress.

“I think the fact that he did it in secret with no fanfare tells you a lot about what the public should think about this,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said in a phone interview about Murphy signing the bill. " … the judge last year outlined what a fair ballot looks like, and this is not it.” Fulop said his team is talking to lawyers “to explore litigation.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said the ballot design “does not reflect” the court’s guidance for “a ballot free of bias and political gamesmanship,” adding he would support a lawsuit if necessary.

“This is a half-measure designed to protect the same political power structures that have held our democracy hostage for decades,” he said. “In the days ahead, we’ll be working with the organizations leading the fight to defend democracy in New Jersey to decide our next steps together and if that means going to court, I will proudly stand with them.”