Plaintiffs’ proposed settlements with Bergen County head to Judge Quraishi for approval, closing six years of litigation as every county clerk named in the cases has agreed to fair ballots

The Bergen County Clerk has agreed to a settlement in the lawsuits challenging New Jersey’s ‘county line’ ballots, becoming the last of the 19 clerks to drop their defense of the old primary ballot system that gave preferential treatment to candidates backed by county party bosses.

The settlement locks in office block ballots, where candidates are listed by the office they’re seeking instead of by party endorsement, and mandates additional specifications for fair ballot design.

"Today's settlement is a massive win for New Jersey voters," said Senator Andy Kim, who challenged the ballot system during the 2024 primary for U.S. Senate. "It's a win that took years of work from advocates and everyday people who just wanted their democracy to work for them. We shouldn't see today as the finish line; we still have a system - in New Jersey and across the country - that has too much money and too little transparency and power for working families. We need to fix that, and today's win will help propel those next fights forward."

The firms Bromberg Law LLC and Weissman & Mintz LLC brought the original litigation in July 2020, which survived seven motions to dismiss, and then secured a preliminary injunction and a precedential, published decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in April 2024.

“Every county clerk named in this case has now agreed to fair ballots. There’s nothing left to argue,” said attorneys Yael Bromberg, Brett Pugach, and Flavio Komuves in a joint statement. “If anyone tries to bring the old system back, they’ll end up right back in court. Fair ballots are the law, and they’re here to stay.”

The agreement brings six years of litigation to a close. The New Jersey Working Families Party was one of the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit challenging the county line.

“The county line is finally dead. A lot of people said this day would never come, but here we are,” said Antoinette Miles, State Director of the New Jersey Working Families Party. “This closes a long and ugly chapter in New Jersey politics where party bosses picked election winners. Now it’s the voters who get to write the next one.”