And we're taking a deeper look tonight at a story we've been covering for months, what appears to be the beginning of the end for New Jersey's unique ballot system, known as the County line.

As we reported last night, a U.S. district judge ordered clerks in Burlington and Middlesex counties to permanently end their use of the county line, which research has shown gives an unfair advantage to party backed candidates at the polls.

There are still 17 other counties left to settle their lawsuits over the controversial ballots, but a senior correspondent, Joanna Gagis reports the judge's decision is likely a harbinger for what's to come.

It's a recognition that the line is on its way out the door.

It's the end of the county line as we know it, and moving towards a fair ballot statewide.

The county line, sometimes called the party line, could be a thing of the past.

In new Jersey, two counties, Burlington and Middlesex, have agreed to settle a lawsuit first brought by the new Jersey Working Families Party in 2020.

They sued to abolish New Jersey's long standing ballot design that favors candidates endorsed by county political leaders in primaries elections.

What we established in these settlements does strictly conform to the order that Judge Quraishi put down in his court order ahead of the June 2024 primary.

Antonette Myles from the Working Families Party, is referring to the ruling from a federal court judge and the subsequent case brought by Congressman Andy Kim last year.

Judge Quraish’s ruling overturned the line for Democrats in this year's June primary, but had no impact on Republicans.

Well, this week's settlement announcement would change the layout for both parties in the counties that have reached a deal.

We're pushing for a robust democracy nationally, and we need to carry those principles to our home state in new Jersey as well.

And of course, that applies to both parties.

This is about the will of the voters.

The Constitution starts off with We the people, and this is about empowering the voters and ensuring that they have their, fair voting rights.

Yael Bromberg represented the plaintiffs in each of the court cases and says there was strong pushback from county clerks from both parties across the state filing to have the cases dismissed, as well as from Democratic county organizations that wanted to keep the line.

She sees the settlement with the two counties, as well as a settlement announced yesterday with the Middlesex County Democrats as a huge victory.

This is a new day for democracy in new Jersey.

It's a new era of politics in new Jersey, and our plaintiffs are prepared to continue litigating if necessary.

Although Rutgers University professor Julia Sass Rubin doesn't think that it's likely that more challenges will be brought to the court, given the fact that Democratic county leaders failed to overturn Judge Quraishi ruling on appeal.

It doesn't seem like it's a good use of taxpayer dollars, and I suspect that most taxpayers would not want their dollars used that way.

But I suspect that if there are more county clerks choosing to settle that, that will impact Republicans the same way.

She points to research that she and other experts have done to demonstrate the impact of county line support, which is a process that has only happened in the state of new Jersey.

If you control for other benefits of the county party endorsement.

So boots on the ground to get people to vote, the money they can pour in, you're still looking at a between a 12 and a 17 point advantage just from having the county line.

The group America First Republicans of New Jersey posted today that they went to federal and state courts asking to be treated the same as the Democrats, unencumbered by the party line in the primary, saying, we will not rest until both parties are treated equally and the line is abolished forevermore.

Do you think that these counties agreeing to settle is an indicator that other counties will follow suit?

Do you believe these dominoes will start to fall?

I truly believe that the writing is on the wall and as you put it, the dominoes will start to fall.

We hope that now that these settlements have been approved by the court and that they are public, that it will encourage the same action from the other litigants.

But I think that if they don't all settle, I think there will be a challenge to ensure that the June 2025 primary has an open ballot, has a fair ballot, and I expect at least some of the gubernatorial candidates to bring such challenge.

It's not clear yet where each of the seven gubernatorial candidates stands, but there's no doubt they're all watching to see what the remaining 17 counties will do.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Joanna Gagis.