Conforti v Hanlon

At a Glance

CLC is challenging New Jersey’s misleading ballot design that gives certain candidates a positional advantage and disproportionately burdens voters of color.  

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Voting and Elections
About This Case/Action

About This Case

New Jersey is the only state in the nation that uses a bracketing system for its ballot design in primary elections: it organizes groupings of candidates in a column or row, rather than listing the office sought followed by a list of each candidate in that race. Candidates who are running for different offices that are in the same bracket are featured together, whereas unbracketed candidates are exiled to separate sections of the ballot.

This bracketing system is flawed for several reasons. First, candidates who are bracketed are given access to more preferable ballot positions – for instance, further to the left or closer to the top. Research has shown that this leads to “position bias” that systematically advantages certain candidates over others. Candidates endorsed by county parties are also frequently bracketed together, disadvantaging other candidates who are either on their own or grouped with another unbracketed candidate. Finally, this design is confusing for voters and often obscures which candidate is running for which office – failing to meet a fundamental objective of good ballot design.

The burdens imposed by this atypical design disproportionately fall on voters of color. Ballot design studies have demonstrated that the poor and racial minorities are the most severely impacted by problems with ballot clarity. Moreover, communities with majority voters of color in New Jersey have witnessed some of the most egregious ballot designs, exacerbating the effects of structural racism.

Several candidates who ran in New Jersey primaries and some who plan to run again in the future are challenging the practice in federal court primarily because of the burden it imposes on candidates.

Our Brief

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is representing the League of Women Voters of New Jersey (LWVNJ) and Salvation and Social Justice (SandSJ) as amici curiae to represent the voices of harmed voters. CLC and the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice have filed a brief in opposition to the defendants’ motion to dismiss on their behalf.    

Fair and clear ballot designs are vital to a healthy democracy. New Jersey’s misleading ballot design stands in direct opposition to this principle, and reinforces structural obstacles for voters and candidates of color.

CLC’s Clients

LWVNJ is a nonpartisan membership organization that has been dedicated to promoting civic engagement and protecting democracy through advocacy and voter education, assistance, and engagement for over one hundred years.

Founded in 2018, SandSJ is a nonpartisan, statewide racial justice organization in New Jersey. SandSJ has advocated for major voting rights efforts in the state, including restoring the right to vote to all people with criminal convictions, limiting police presence at voting locations, expanding voter access during the pandemic, and other measures to ensure that voters throughout the state, and specifically Black and other voters of color, have meaningful access to the ballot.

Victory! Appeals Court Upholds Michigan’s Independent Redistricting Commission

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MICHIGAN – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has upheld the state of Michigan’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission (IRC) as constitutional in Daunt v. Benson, allowing it to proceed with public input as the data is collected from the 2020 Census. The decision is a shot in the arm for the movement to adopt IRC’s as a viable solution to gerrymandering across the country. It could still be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It is time for fair maps in Michigan," said Paul Smith, vice president of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), attorney of record in the case. "Today's decision reaffirms the right of Michiganders to ensure that elections are decided by voters, not politicians. This victory will allow the commission to proceed, allowing the voters' will to be heard."

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) represents Voters Not Politicians (VNP), the grassroots group that drafted and sponsored the constitutional amendment to create an IRC. The issue in the case is whether it is constitutional to make the Michigan Commission a true citizens’ commission, by excluding from consideration people who have had recent involvement in government and political affairs. The Sixth Circuit has now twice rejected that argument in two separate appeals. The challengers could, like any member of the public, engage in redistricting by taking part in the public hearing process. But they were properly excluded from consideration to join the commission.

At Campaign Legal Center, we are advancing democracy through law. Learn more about our work.

Issues
Redistricting

CLC Files Suit Urging the FEC To Investigate $4.8 Million in Secret Spending Advocating Against Former Presidential Primary Candidate Bernie Sanders

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Millions in Secret Money Spent by Big Tent Project Fund to Defeat Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders Continue to Evade Campaign Finance Laws

Washington, D.C. -  Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed suit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after the agency failed to act on CLC’s May 2020 complaint alleging that Big Tent Project Fund (Big Tent Project) violated the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) by failing to register as a political committee and failing to report its contributions, expenditures and debts.

During the 2020 presidential election, Big Tent Project spent more than $4.8 million on ads targeting voters in key states and expressly advocating against Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. Once Sanders’ path to the presidential nomination became nearly impossible, Big Tent Project’s election spending dropped precipitously. Donors to the group remain unidentified to this day.  

In its May 2020 complaint, CLC further alleged that, even if Big Tent Project were not a political committee, it still violated federal law by failing to disclose the identities of contributors who gave for political purposes and funded its independent expenditures and by failing to report all its independent expenditures exceeding $250.  

“As the only government agency with the sole responsibility of overseeing the integrity of our federal political campaigns, the FEC’s failure to protect voters’ right to know who is trying to influence their votes and take action on this blatant violation is yet another example of the agency’s dysfunction and its disregard for the campaign finance laws it was designed to oversee,” said Erin Chlopak, director, campaign finance strategy, CLC.

Big Tent Project’s election spending, along with public statements by and about the group, overwhelmingly indicate that its major purpose was influencing the 2020 presidential election, namely by defeating Sanders. But despite such compelling evidence, the FEC has failed to act on CLC’s administrative complaint for more than a year. 

The failure of the FEC to enforce campaign finance laws has resulted in an explosion of secret spending, and our politics are increasingly rigged in favor of special interests. To reduce political corruption, CLC urges the FEC to enforce campaign finance laws and hold Big Tent Project accountable.

At Campaign Legal Center, we are advancing democracy through law. Learn more about our work.

Issues
Campaign Finance
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