The abolishing of the political “party line” for this year’s Democratic primary and the likelihood of its complete demise is a welcome development. By eliminating unfair ballot placement for political party-endorsed candidates, often anointed by party bosses, the court leveled the playing field. The result will be more candidates, more competitive primaries, and more power for citizens in choosing their representatives.

This important reform, however, should mark the beginning, not the end, of expanding citizen power and thereby creating more dynamic governance in New Jersey. The opportunity in front of us is to use this ballot reform to spark a movement to open access for government decision-making so that all New Jerseyans can help develop solutions to the state’s many challenges. Importantly, this citizen power expansion needs to be especially inclusive of our youth who need the hope that they can shape their own destiny.

One way to do this is to teach citizens, including youth citizens, how to take control of our state’s political parties. We can start by teaching them about New Jersey’s little-known 2009 Party Democracy Act, mandating that all county political parties adopt rules for their operation. The act gives neighborhood-level party representatives the authority to adopt rules for fair and open candidate endorsement and grassroots development of party platform priorities. Any two neighborhood party representatives, for example, can advance a motion to require that all candidate endorsements be made by a secret ballot vote, employing voting machines to prevent boss pressure on grassroots county committee members who have family or friends in government employment. Neighborhood-level representatives can also adopt a process for developing party platform priorities directed at problems in their own hometowns.

This is the type of reform I instituted as chair of the Middlesex County Democratic Party. The result was broader and more decentralized party decision-making, more active involvement, and more diverse candidate endorsements.

And, if we’re going to empower our young citizens, we need to give them instant access to the government information they need to find and advance solutions to the issues they care about. This requires us to move forward and modernize the state’s open records law, rather than gutting it as our state legislative leaders recently did. Gov. Murphy’s disappointing decision to sign this rollback of the public’s right to know is a temporary setback. This fight will not only go on, but it will also intensify because the fight for citizens’ rights is fundamental.

Seizing on advances in technology since I led the task force that achieved passage of the then landmark Open Public Records Act more than 20 years ago, we should move to create easier and more universal access to local government policy information. We should require local and county governments, for instance, to place all policy documents, executive ordinances and resolutions in searchable databases on their websites in a standard user-friendly format. This would give citizens, especially our tech-competent youth, the chance to bring their solutions into the policy process and would have the added benefit of reducing the need for specific requests to municipal clerks.

Most importantly, we must make education in the skills and knowledge essential to becoming pragmatic problem solvers of government issues available to all — especially our youth. The Citizen Service, a new national public service, educates citizens to participate directly in addressing the issues they care about, starting in their own hometowns. The Service offers free online training in citizen leadership and no-blame problem solving. Graduates of the training are given the choice of five community-based, citizen leadership roles, designed to fit within today’s time demands, and that do not require running for public office. The Citizen Service is open to all new Jerseyans, especially our youth.

This is a pivotal time for our state. It’s not time to take a victory lap just because of a court-ordered county line reform. It’s time for New Jersey to open up for full participation of our citizens. In this way we can tap the common sense and ingenuity of all of our citizens. New Jersey can become a community of citizen leaders, breaking free of political boss domination to work together with our young citizens toward a better tomorrow.