New Jersey Democratic Rep. Andy Kim seemed to admit that his party “manipulates” the voters to push their chosen candidates.
Kim appeared on CNN with anchor Kasie Hunt, who asked the congressman why the ballot in his home state has multiple columns with candidates for president, saying only a few of the senatorial candidates being supported by the state party were listed as prominently, while the others running for the senate were not as obvious.
For me, fighting for a fair ballot in Jersey is about preserving and protecting democracy.
Thank you @kasie for having me on @CNNThisMorning to breakdown the unfair impact of the county line versus a ballot that truly empowers the people’s voice and choice. pic.twitter.com/Xn8R5yTif4
— Andy Kim (@AndyKimNJ) February 29, 2024
Hunt asked if Kim thought the misleading ballot might make voters miss the other candidates, the Daily Caller reported.
Kim spilled the beans, saying that pushing the other candidates down to a less-prominent spot on the New Jersey ballot has “a huge impact.”
“And it’s been determined,” Kim continued, “in fact, our lawsuit has the newest data about how this impacts it. Upwards of double-digits advantage for someone who is in what’s called the county line, because it’s just something that draws in the voters and oftentimes people even miss that there are other columns further off.
“So, you know, this is something that is a real concern, and it’s trying to basically manipulate and take advantage of voters. And I think that that’s wrong,” he said.
He went on to say that he thinks the party “should be able to give everyone a fair chance,” the congressman said.
Are these ballots unconstitutional?
“We’re the only state in America that does this. Forty-nine other states do what’s called office block ballots, which is the norm,” he said.
Kim filed a federal lawsuit against the state on Feb. 26, alleging that the state’s ballot design unconstitutionally favors candidates supported by New Jersey’s Democrat leaders, the Associated Press reported.
Kim is not necessarily acting out of the goodness of his heart. He is currently locked in a primary campaign for the U.S. Senate against Tammy Murphy, wife of sitting Gov. Phil Murphy, the party’s favored candidate.
The two top Democrat candidates are vying to fill the seat held by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who faces federal corruption charges and who has fallen out of favor with the Democratic Party machine in the Garden State.
Menendez has not ruled out running for re-election and does have a campaign website up and running, but party leaders are angling to move on from his corruption-plagued tenure in the upper chamber.
According to the AP, Kim accused the Democrat Party of failing to “protect democracy” in New Jersey with its unusual ballot design.
“I believe that the Democratic Party is a party of protecting our democracy and making sure we’re preserving that,” the congressman declared, according to the Daily Caller.
“But right now in my home state, Democratic Party elites are the ones that are putting their thumbs on the scale of this Senate primary, trying to be able to put this in the favor of the first lady of New Jersey, the governor’s wife, who obviously controls a lot of power in that family,” he said.
“Whereas I believe that democracy should be fair and open to anyone that should be able to participate, not just the well-off and the well-connected,” Kim said.
Alexandra Altman, a spokeswoman for Tammy Murphy, blasted Kim in a text message to the Associated Press, saying that he had no problem with the state’s ballot system before and said that he only “has a problem with losing,” and added, “he is perfectly happy to participate in the process when he wins.”
Kim may be engaged in a cynical effort for selfish reasons at this point, but he is nonetheless right that the Democratic Party appears to be intentionally manipulating voters to guide them to consider only the party’s chosen few when they enter the voting booth. The Democrats have put their thumb on the scale even before the first vote is cast and they should be stopped.
