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With a 2-0-4 vote the Jersey City Council adopted a resolution in support of eliminating rows, lines and columns on primary ballots.
The Jersey City Council has passed a resolution endorsing the abolition of party lines on primary ballots in the interests of fair elections.
According to the resolution, sponsored by Ward E Councilman James Solomon, New Jersey primary election ballots are configured to “stack the deck” for certain candidates at the expense of others, “thereby undermining the integrity of elections and hindering our democracy.”
New Jersey is the only state in the nation that organizes its primary election ballots by bracketing groups of candidates in a column or row, rather than by listing the office sought followed immediately by the names of all candidates running for that office.
In rarely seen vote, Jersey City Council OKs resolution to abolish HCDO line with only 2 yeses
By Daniel Ulloa/ Hudson County View
Ward E Councilman James Solomon, the sponsor of the measure, was joined by Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro in voting yes.
The remaining electeds in attendance, Councilman-at-Large Daniel Rivera, Ward B Councilwoman Mira Prinz-Arey, Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano, and Ward D Councilman Yousef Saleh all abstained, with Council President Joyce Watterman, Ward A Councilwoman Denise Ridley, and Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson absent.
“It is a big conversation. It is an extraordinarily important conversation as a state we simply have not had until the last year,” Solomon said prior to the vote.