Mixed reception for bill allowing candidates' names to be rotated on ballot
New legislation that would allow county clerks to rotate political candidates’ names on primary ballots faced a chilly reception from voting advocates and wariness from election officials during an Assembly hearing Tuesday.
The bill, which did not get a vote before the Assembly State and Local Government Committee Tuesday, is intended to allow candidates to have equal time in the top spot on a ballot. But some critics noted that the measure would allow name rotations only after a ballot draw, and then only at the request of political party leaders.
“If the goal is to have a fair election outcome, then why would we once again take a good governance reform meant to be uniformly applied statewide and instead hand it over to the control and discretion of political parties?” said Antoinette Miles, state director for the New Jersey Working Families Party.
The effects of ballot primacy are well studied. All else being equal, candidates who win the top spot on the ballot get more votes than those who don’t by virtue of being listed first. The size of the primacy effect varies, but estimates generally place them in the low single-digit range.
https://newjerseymonitor.com/2026/06/23/mixed-reception-for-bill-allowing-candidates-names-to-be-rotated-on-ballot/