Most county clerks settle lawsuit targeting county-line ballots • New Jersey Monitor

Nearly all counties sued by Rep. Andy Kim over New Jersey’s county-line primary ballots have settlement agreements in place or awaiting approval, but two counties and two party organizations have yet to reach a deal to settle the lawsuit.

Clerks in Bergen and Union counties are the last government officials to remain in litigation over whether New Jersey’s system of county lines — a ballot design that groups party-endorsed candidates in a single row or column — violates First Amendment protections to free association and a constitutional provision that limits state control over election results.

The suit, lodged by Kim (D-03) a few months into his campaign for a U.S. Senate seat, spurred a federal judge to order 19 counties to use a new ballot design in June’s Democratic primaries and spawned a special Assembly committee to legislate new ballot design.

“I think there’s a real opportunity here for everyone to put the case behind them,” said Flavio Komuves, an attorney representing Kim and other plaintiffs. “I think that the plaintiffs have offered extremely generous settlement terms, and we don’t want to see a situation where the remaining clerks are spending tax money on a trial or other hearings that shouldn’t be necessary.”

Attorneys representing clerks in Union and Bergen counties did not return a request for comment.

Seventeen county clerks have agreed to settlement terms that require them to print ballots to use what are known as office-block ballots — these group candidates by the office they’re seeking — and to draw ballot positions randomly for each office. The agreements each call for $32,533 in attorney’s fees for Kim.

Eleven counties have finalized settlements in those terms, and clerks in six other counties — Hudson, Hunterdon, Morris, Ocean, Cape May, and Passaic — have agreed to them in principle but are awaiting approval from their county commissions.

The Camden County Democratic Committee and the Morris County Republican Committee, which both intervened in the litigation, also have yet to reach settlement agreements.

Kim’s lawsuit targeted 19 county clerks, arguing their county-line ballots violate First Amendment protections on free association by denying some candidates the top ballot position unless they share a slogan with a candidate for higher office. The complaint also alleged these ballots impact race results in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s elections clause.

Critics of county-line ballots say they give party-backed candidates an unfair advantage at the polls by providing them with better ballot placement.

In March, U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi barred the use of county lines in Democratic primaries, finding Kim and two congressional candidate co-plaintiffs were likely to succeed at trial, and a federal appeals court panel later upheld his ruling. Because the suit had no Republican plaintiffs, Quraishi’s order did not bar the use of county lines in GOP races.

Ballots in Sussex and Salem Counties do not feature a county line, and clerks there were not named in Kim’s suit.

The parties went before Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni for a settlement conference Thursday.

Bergen County Clerk John Hogan is the only clerk remaining in a related suit lodged by former congressional candidate Christine Conforti, who challenged county lines after her primary in 2020. Camden Democrats and Morris Republicans are also party to that litigation.

The special Assembly committee on Tuesday took testimony from clerks and other election officials, the first step in lawmakers’ promised process to revamp New Jersey’s ballots through legislation.