In a bombshell filing one day before a scheduled court hearing, New Jersey’s Attorney General said that “the Line” is unconstitutional and he will not intervene in the federal lawsuit filed by Congressman Andy Kim, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate, to ban the “Line”.
The “Line” is the election ballot design that allows preferred candidates from one party to be aligned or stacked under one column or line. New Jersey is the only state in the U.S. that still allows this ballot design.
In 2022, the Holmdel Charter Study Commission recommended local elections be held on a nonpartisan basis, in other words, without the “Line”. Instead, all candidates are placed in an office box similar to elections for the Board of Education (see picture).
The reasoning was that local elections are not about ideology but more about the quality of life, snow removal, street paving, and public safety such as police, fire and first aid, etc.
The campaign against the Charter Study Commission’s recommendation alleged that this was a ploy for Democrats to elect candidates in Holmdel and was successful in getting voters to vote against the recommendation. However, Red Bank, a town controlled by Democrats and where the Mayor and all Council members are all Democrats, decided in 2022 to eliminate the “Line” and its residents voted in favor of nonpartisan elections.
Congressman Kim filed a federal lawsuit last month seeking to ban the “Line” saying that the ballot design is a violation of the First and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution. In many New Jersey counties, typically one person, the county party boss, decides which candidates will appear on the “Line”.
Rutgers Associate Professor Dr. Julia Sass Rubin explained that a candidate endorsed by a political party boss or running on the “Line” has a 35 percentage-point advantage over opponents who are not endorsed by the political party. This advantage is so overwhelming that a new party-endorsed challenger can defeat even a well-known incumbent solely because of being “on the Line”.
In his 5-page filing, Attorney General Matthew Platkin stated that the Line provides for an “electoral advantage for candidates who bracket and a corresponding disadvantage for candidates who do not.” He went on to say that the party-line ballot structure creates confusion for voters compared to an office-block ballot.
Elected officials, including Hoboken Mayor and Congressional candidate Ravi Bhalla and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, came out in support of the Attorney General’s position and abolishing the “Line”. Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, one of three Democratic candidates for the 2025 Gubernatorial race, called for the dissolution of the “Line” and said that he would not seek the “Line” if other major candidates would do the same.
Unlike a similar federal lawsuit filed in 2020, the lawsuit by Congressman Kim seems to have gained traction. The judge held a marathon 9-hour hearing on Monday, March 18th including Congressman Kim as a witness.
“I just ask for us to have a fair ballot here,” said Congressman Kim. “All I’m asking for is New Jersey to be in line with 49 other states.” He went on to say “The whole point of democracy is to give the people a choice and be able to have the decision be made by the people” and added, “If there are elements limiting that, I find that to be adverse to the pursuit of democracy.”
A decision is expected soon, possibly as early as next week.
Is this the end of the “Line”? Could this effectively result in nonpartisan local elections in Holmdel? Stay tuned.
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