and we have breaking news a federal appeals court is upholding the decision to scrap the county line in the June 4th Democratic primary those candidates will run under an office block ballot design the appet judge also wrote he believes the broader argument against the party line will eventually succeed as it moves through the court and that might not be the only change coming to New Jersey's ballot design Jersey City recently passed an ordinance to switch to what's known as ranked Choice vote it's an electoral system where voters rank candidates by preference If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote it automatically triggers a runoff between the top two vote Getters as Ted Goldberg reports the method is already used in New York City local elections and appears to be gaining traction here with the county line on its last legs some leaders say why stop there when it comes to changing New Jersey's ballots we had the worst ballots when it came to the line now now let's not just get rid of the line let's move to the best possible ballots the most representative democracy the type of system that encourages people to get active rank Choice voting could come to Jersey City and Hoboken as soon as next year both cities have passed ordinances letting people rank their top choices when they vote Jersey city councilman James Solomon was one of those yes votes it encourages more people to participate it reduces toxic campaigning because it reduces the incentive for campaigners to be negative against their opponents right it allows voters to truly pick their first choice and not engage in strategic voting well I like this person more but they're probably not going to win so should I vote for this other person before municipalities can Implement rank Choice voting Trenton has to pass a law allowing cities to decide for themselves and then voters must pass it with a referendum Senator Andrews wicker has repeatedly sponsored a bill that would do this saying rank Choice voting would clean up elections a little I got to try to convince if I want to win some percentage of his support orders to put me second and so you know if I just relentlessly and negatively attack him there was no penalty of any kind Senators wicker spoke at a rank Choice voting event yesterday at Stockton University Republican senator Vince Palestina said he agrees with zwicker showing there could be a bipartisan push the partisanship that exist out in society is uh just something they don't want to have a part of so I think from the standpoint of increasing voter turnout giving more candidates an opportunity giving more people a voice I think you would see more people engaged uh more people taking advantage of it so from that standpoint of getting more people involved I think it would be a great thing activists said rank Choice voting is a common sense measure one activist even argued that not allowing rank Choice voting is unconstitutional it's my hypothesis that our current system is actually a First Amendment violation and that something that rank Choice voting solves by because if your if your opinion is that you would want somebody first in somebody second you can now do that at rank Choice voting which you can't currently Express that when a friend of yours goes out to the to the lunchroom you say Well if they have pizza I want pizza if they don't have pizza then I want a hamburger if they don't have hamburger I want whatever we live our lives with rank Choice voting all the time voters in Maine use rank Choice voting and so did New Yorkers voting for mayor in their last election zwicker says this process allows more people to be interested in voting anyone could come in and go well I really love the green party I'm going to vote for the Green Party candidate first I'm going to vote for a Democrat or Republican second that's exactly how it should work councilman Solomon says he's optimistic that Trenton can get zwicker's bill past the Finish Line despite the fact that a similar Bill received no action last year and the current version hasn't gone anywhere either we've been in New Jersey for a long time we get a little cynical about good ideas going to die and threaten but the way I think about it is this is um Governor Murphy the legislative leaders they have a chance now with the end of the line to to leave a legacy of we truly adopted the system that's going to transform New Jersey for decades for Centuries with a truly representative democracy ballots Statewide could look a lot different with rank Choice voting and without the county line but a lot of things have to happen before we see these changes when we pull the lever in Jersey City I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news