the county line ballot find May soon be over Burlington and Middlesex counties today reached a proposed settlement in the lawsuit brought by Congressman Andy Kim seeking to permanently ban the county line ballot which research has shown gives an advantage to candidates backed by powerful political machines now the settlements still need a judge's approval and there are more than a dozen other counties that are party to the suit but the agreements would prevent ballots from grouping candidates in any way other than by the office they're seeking or from bracketing party endorsed candidates together who are running for different offices Congressman Kim sued most of the county clerks back in February during a primary fight with first lady Tammy Murphy in a statement today he said he was quote hopeful this will spark momentum to get other counties on board [Music]