Sound harsh? Read some of the recent reporting on the June 4 Democratic primaries and how progressive candidates have struggled to overcome a bizarre ballot that makes it easy to find party-endorsed candidates but shunts challengers off to a visual “Siberia” on the far-right. Or, the dirty trick where machine-encouraged “phantom" candidates flood the ballot (one who was tracked down by Politico New Jersey’s Matt Friedman told him he was running for “[j]ust stuff like parks and stuff like that, how kids don’t really have anywhere to go or anything like that. ... I don’t know, I didn’t really think it was going to be taken as seriously as it’s being taken”) so serious challengers are harder for voters to locate. Or, winning elections the old-fashioned way — by machine-backed clerks or judges throwing challengers off the ballot.