11 Bills Would Affect NJ Voting: See What They Are And What They Do

NEW JERSEY — In the wake of complaints about slow counting of ballots for the 2021 gubernatorial election, the New Jersey Legislature is considering measures to speed the process along.

Eleven bills approved by the Assembly State and Local Government Committee recently would affect pollworkers, overseas voters and would require county clerks to publish specifics of how many votes have been cast by mail and how many remain to be counted, to give voters a clearer picture of the vote-counting process.

All of the bills, which were released from committee on May 12, still need to be voted on by the state Assembly and Senate, and would require Gov. Phil Murphy to sign them. Some of the bills must go before the Assembly Appropriations Committee because they require funding from the state.

Here are the 11 bills and how they will affect voters:

Bill A3822 would require the county Board of Elections to post the number of ballots received, the number counted and the number remaining to be counted in the following categories: early in-person ballots, vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots, and Election-Day ballots.

Currently the county election officials post, in real time, the total number of people whose ballots have been counted, along with breakdown of the number of votes by mail that have been counted, and provisional ballots counted, which come at the very end of the process.

The bill also includes amendments to existing law that would prevent someone from changing their party affiliation at the state Motor Vehicle Commission.

Bill 3817 would make a number of changes that affect vote-by-mail ballots.

If passed, it would shorten the time for a mail-in ballot to be received and counted to 72 hours if the ballot is mailed and postmarked by the election deadline. Currently, ballots that are postmarked on or before the election deadline have six days to arrive at the Board of Elections to be counted.

Voters whose vote-by-mail ballots have a defect — which includes items such as forgetting to sign it or the signature not matching the voter registration records — would have until midnight on the ninth day following election day to “cure” the ballot, and verify they cast it, so it can be counted. Currently they have until 48 hours before the deadline to finalize the votes to address it.

The bill also would allow election boards to begin the process of opening the inner envelopes on vote-by-mail ballots five days before Election Day and counting the ballots three days before election day. Currently vote-by-mail ballots’ inner envelopes cannot be opened until Election Day.

The bill requires the vote tallies remain confidential until after the polls close on Election Day and anyone who violates that faces third-degree criminal charges.

It also would require polling places to provide privacy sleeves and privacy screens for voters who are voting by hand-marked paper ballots.

The bill also would allow voters to request a mail-in ballot, and to declare or change their political party affiliation, using the online voter registration system. “The online voter registration system would not accept a new voter registration form submission from the same person until the previous submission has been processed,” according to the bill.

Bill A3929 would permit voters who lived in New Jersey and have moved overseas temporarily, but plan to return to New Jersey or who have ties to New Jersey to vote in state elections as well as federal. It has no effect on voters who are on active duty with the U.S. military or Merchant marine or their eligible spouses or dependents.

Bill A3821 would require counties to make vote-by-mail drop boxes more accessible to voters. It would require at least 50 percent of a county’s early voting polling places and ballot drop boxes to be in municipalities that have the lowest voter turnout percentages in that county. At least 50 percent of the early voting locations and ballot drop boxes are also to be placed in locations that are accessible by public transportation.

Bill A3823 would require the election board to check death records at least once every two months to update voter rolls and remove those who have died.

It would require the state to join the Electronic Registration Information Center, a nonprofit organization of 31 states and the District of Columbia, which shares voter registration information to determine whether voters are registered in more than one state.

The bill also would make poll worker compensation exempt from income taxes, and would remove the costs of the elections from the limitations of the 2 percent cap on budgets.

Bill A3819 would allow a voter to be removed from the vote-by-mail lists if they have not voted in four consecutive elections, starting with the 2020 election. Currently voters receive a vote-by-mail ballot if they opted to receive them permanently. In addition, voters who have their mail-in ballot sent to an address that isn’t their home address — such as college students voting by mail while at school — the ballot will be sent to the address for which they are registered to vote if the ballot is returned or undeliverable after two consecutive elections, including primary elections. The bill requires a voter to be notified in writing after the second consecutive election cycle when the ballot was returned or undeliverable of the change in where their ballot will be sent.

Bill A3820 would require unaffiliated voters who request a vote-by-mail ballots for a primary to declare a political party affiliation. Currently unaffiliated voters who request one receive vote-by-mail ballots for both primaries. They can only mail one back, however.

Bill A1969 would allow teens age 16 or older to be hired as poll workers during an election, to help bolster the number of poll workers. They would be permitted to work from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Bill A3733 would allow college students enrolled as undergraduates to earn one academic credit for working as a poll worker and establish guidelines for it.

Bill A3915 would require the state of New Jersey to pay for a new election if a judge invalidates an election due to errors by the state. The bill was prompted after a Superior Court judge invalidated the November 2021 election for a seat on the Old Bridge Township Council after determining some voters received the wrong ballot and voted, due to an error in the Statewide Voter Registration System that placed certain voters in the wrong ward.

Bill A3818 sets four specific dates for special fire district elections to “provide voters with more notice and predictability, allowing them a better chance to vote.” The dates can be altered if the date falls on a religious observance that would keep voters from the polls.

Note: This article has been updated to correct which agency has responsibility for posting ballot totals as proposed under A3822. Patch regrets the error.