The jury is still out on whether having the top line of the ballot even makes a difference, but the Supreme Court’s verdict giving Republicans back the top ballot line is in. This summer, the Republican Party challenged Secretary of the State Denise Merrill’s decision to give Democrats the top ballot line after the 2010 gubernatorial election. The mistake wasn’t discovered in 2011, so Democratic candidates appeared at the top of the ballot last year. Republicans argued Tom Foley received more votes on the Republican line than Gov. Dannel P. Malloy received on the Democratic line, so its candidates should have top billing.
Although Malloy won the election by a slim margin of 6,404 votes, his name was split between two party lines. His name appeared on the Democratic ballot line and the Working Families Party ballot line. Foley’s name only appeared on the Republican ballot line and in 2010 he received 560,874 votes, compared to the 540,970 votes Malloy received on the Democratic ballot line. Malloy also received 26,308 votes on the Working Families Party line.
Associate Attorney General Greg D’Auria argued that the candidate, not the party which received the most votes should be at the top of the ballot. There was also a question about whether the Republican Party had exhausted all of its administrative remedies before bringing the lawsuit to court. The justices unanimously decided it had.
Full Article: CT News Junkie | GOP To Get Top Ballot Line.