NJ considers grouping school board candidates as slate on ballot

 New Jersey Sen. Bob Singer urges the Senate Government Committee to advance his bill allowing school board candidates to appear on the ballot as a slate. (Phil Gregory/WHYY)

New Jersey Sen. Bob Singer urges the Senate Government Committee to advance his bill allowing school board candidates to appear on the ballot as a slate. (Phil Gregory/WHYY)

A bill under consideration by New Jersey lawmakers would allow school board candidates to appear as one slate on the ballot.

A number of board of education candidates in New Jersey have said they’d like to run as a team, said Sen. Bob Singer.

“With the change in what has happened in the balloting where everything is going to the November ballot, it’s a confusing ballot,” said Singer, R-Ocean. “People have to look all over, and they say — because of that confusion — if we’re not bracketed together, they don’t see that. A lot of times people don’t even vote, they don’t even see them.”

The Senate Government Committee has advanced Singer’s bill allowing school board candidates to have a brief slogan on the ballot to make it easier for voters to identify candidates running together.

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“It’ll encourage more activity in school board elections,” he said. “They spend the bulk of local government money, probably in the area between 60 and 65 percent, and yet it is the lowest amount of people turning out for their election.”

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