Dems sue Ga., 2 other states over ballot laws

Because Republicans control governorships, every race lists GOP first.

Democratic organizations filed lawsuits in Georgia, Arizona and Texas on Friday saying that Republicans are given an unfair advantage by being listed first on those states’ general election ballots.

The traditionally red states that Democrats hope to make competitive in 2020 have slightly different rules about ballot placement, but in each case, because Republicans control the governorships, every race is listed with the Republican candidate first.

“We know from the social science that there is something called the ‘primacy effect,’ studied across all kinds of things that have nothing to do with politics,” said Marc Elias, a Democratic attorney.

In Georgia, Republican candidates have been listed ahead of Democratic candidates in general elections for the last 15 years.

The Democrat-controlled Georgia General Assembly passed a bill in 2002 requiring that candidates of the party that won the most votes for governor in the last election appear first on the ballot. Later that year, Republican Sonny Perdue defeated Democrat Roy Barnes.

Ahead of 2020, Democrats are looking at a slew of election laws they believe could tip the scale in Republicans’ favor, filing lawsuits all over the country.

The ballot placement rules, the lawsuits argue, are unconstitutional because they violate the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by treating “similarly-situated majorparty candidates differently.”