A New Jersey county that could play a decisive role in the next month’s statewide elections will be reprinting its general election ballots after the Republican National Committee successfully argued that a ballot redesign unlawfully favored Democrats.
The dispute began late last month when Democratic County Clerk James Hogan replaced Gloucester County’s legally required party-column ballot format, where each political party’s candidates appear under a single vertical heading, with an office-block layout that grouped all candidates for each race together, regardless of party.
Republicans argued the change undermined their visibility on the ballot and blunted their “Vote Column A” campaign after winning the position of Column A in the county’s ballot drawing. On Friday, a state appellate court ruled that Hogan’s layout violated the law and ordered reprints of ballots in time for early
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