There is a major political and legal battle unfolding in our state over both the fairness and constitutionality of the so-called “county line” used by some counties in their primary election ballots.

Under this practice, through a complex set of statutory rules involving “bracketing” and “sloganing,” the county’s political leaders effectively indicate their endorsed candidates on a “line” on the ballot. This practice gives a clearly demonstrated electoral advantage to those endorsed candidates, beyond the mere endorsement, over the other candidates of their party. Apparently no other state permits this practice.