The “Hot Mess” of New Jersey’s election ballots

July 1, 2020

New Jersey is holding its first statewide vote-by-mail primary on July 7th.  Even though COVID-19 has made 2020 a difficult and unusual election year all over the country,  the Garden State has its own unique problems that predate the pandemic.

A coalition of activists, election lawyers, researchers, and public policy experts say the state has the most convoluted ballot design in the whole country. 

“I am not seeing anything that even closely resembles what we do,” said Julia Sass Rubin, professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.  She collected ballot samples from multiple counties in all 50 states. 

The Gothamist, June 30, 2020

Recent Posts

Molloy Discusses Criteria for Healthiest Cities

Location matters when it comes to health. Some places promote wellness by expanding access to nutritious food and recreational facilities. Others strive to keep healthcare costs affordable for everyone or keep parks clean and well-maintained. When a city doesn’t take...

McGlynn & Payne Explore the Relational Reprojection Platform

Counter-GIS Experiments in Distance Interpolation with the Relational Reprojection Platform Abstract In this paper, we discuss the cartographic genealogy and prospective uses of the Relational Reprojection Platform (RRP), an interactive tool that we built to create...

Clint Andrews–The Critical Role of University Research

The Critical Role of University Research: Funding, Challenges, and Impact This week on EJB Talks dean Stuart Shapiro and Associate Dean of Research Clint Andrews discuss the vital role federal-funded university research plays in complementing education, driving...

Payne Investigates City Digital Twins Concepts

Expanding the city digital twin in the context of crisis, cartography and computation Abstract This commentary responds to Gillian Rose's ‘Visualising human life in volumetric cities: city digital twins and other disasters’ as a framework for thinking about crisis and...

Nashia Basit (MPP/MCRP ’24) on Women’s Leadership

This week, alumna and current Governor's Fellow Nashia Basit (MPP/MCRP '24) discussed women's leadership in state government and cultivating spaces for women to be successful with Allison Chris Myers, Esq., CEO of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission....