Andy Kim sues over ballot design ahead of New Jersey Senate primary

New Jersey Senate candidate Rep. Andy Kim (D) filed a lawsuit against 19 Garden State election commissioners Monday, alleging that the use of a party column ballot design favors certain candidates over others ahead of forthcoming primary elections.

The suit aims to redesign the ballot process in 19 of the state’s 21 counties, an effort that could hurt rival Senate candidate Tammy Murphy. Murphy, wife of Gov. Phil Murphy (D), is believed to be at an advantage because of the party column design.

Kim and Murphy will face off in the Senate primary on June 4 to potentially replace Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.). Menendez, facing criminal corruption charges, has not announced whether he will seek reelection.

New Jersey ballots in the 19 counties feature “party lines” of designated candidates that were endorsed by local Democratic Party leadership. Kim and the suit’s other plaintiffs, House candidates Sarah Schoengood and Carolyn Rush, argue the party line puts the endorsed candidates at an unfair advantage.

Citing academic studies, the plaintiffs said the party line ballots act as an “unconstitutional governmental thumb on the scale.”

“Government, including the Defendants (who themselves are often beneficiaries of the county line as elected officers) cannot constitutionally design a primary ballot to favor only those candidates who happen to be endorsed by a faction of a party’s leadership,” the suit reads.

“The Constitution demands a fair election, not necessarily a perfect one,” it continues. “But when the choices of primary voters, who by law are the sole judges to determine a party’s nominee for the general election, are cynically manipulated by the Defendants, the result is anathema to fair elections.”

County Democratic parties in New Jersey have taken center stage in the Senate primary race with Kim outperforming expectations among party leadership, which was mostly anticipated to back Murphy. 

Kim unexpectedly won the endorsement of the Monmouth County Democratic Party earlier this month, Murphy’s home county. The development added momentum to a grassroots-driven campaign that has taken a double-digit lead in early polls.

Bucking the party line ballots, unique to New Jersey, would erase the advantage from the Monmouth endorsement for Kim, but would also do the same for Murphy’s endorsements across the state.

The suit argues that the much sought-after party line encourages backroom deals with local party leadership, and that it is a form of “soft corruption” that hurts the fair democratic process. 

“Unfair preferential treatment and gamesmanship that regularly impacts election results and sometimes impacts outcomes, are not features that belong anywhere near a government-sponsored ballot,” the suit reads.

Murphy’s campaign denounced the effort as a “hypocritical stunt.”

“Andy Kim doesn’t have a problem with the county line system, he has a problem with the idea of losing county lines — as he is perfectly happy to participate in the process when he wins, and he has benefited from the lines in every other election he’s run,” Murphy campaign spokesperson Alex Altman said in a statement to The Hill. “This sad hypocritical stunt by D.C. politician Kim is just another attempt to advance his career in Washington.”