USA Today has this article about the order of candidates on New Jersey primary ballots. The New Jersey primary, for President and all other partisan office, is June 7. The article explains that in most counties in New Jersey, the ballot has two dominant columns, and every candidate who doesn’t qualify to appear in one of the two visible columns is then placed in a third column, over the right, that is not immediately visible to many voters.

For presidential primary candidates, the odds of being in one of the two better columns depends on whether that presidential primary candidate is supported by various candidates running for partisan county office in the same primary. The article highlights Bernie Sanders supporters who filed to run in the Democratic primary for various county offices, not because they want the job, but to help Sanders appear in one of the better columns. No other state has such a ballot format policy for primary elections.

General election ballots in most counties in New Jersey have the same characteristic. Democratic and Republican nominees each have their own conspicuous column, and every other candidate is squished into the third column with no partisan party heading.