On October 10, a New Jersey state appellate court ruled that Gloucester County cannot use office-group ballots in general elections, and must reprint ballots using a party column format. See this story.

The lawsuit was Gloucester County Republican Committee v Hogan, L1286-25.

New Jersey law lets county clerks design ballots, but the Court said they are constrained by a state law that says a drawing shall be held before every election to determine the order of party columns. This was held to mean that there must be party columns.

Several other New Jersey counties have been using office-group ballots in general elections for years.

Here is what the Gloucester County ballot looked like before the court ruling.