Suffragist Buried In Cinnaminson Has Her Name On Congressional Voter-Protection Bill

WASHINGTON, DC — Visitors still leave notes on Alice Paul's grave in Cinnaminson to thank her for her lifelong women's-rights advocacy. Two members Congress representing New Jersey will once again seek to expand voter protections in her name.

Reps. Donald Norcross (NJ-1) and Andy Kim (NJ-3) re-introduced the Alice Paul Voter Protection Act on Tuesday. If passed, the legislation would federally criminalize interference with voter registration.

"Democracy is not a spectator sport and voting access needs to be protected," Norcross said in a statement. "South Jersey’s own Alice Paul is a perfect example of the courage and bravery it takes to protect it."

Born in Mount Laurel in 1885, Paul attended the Moorestown Friends School, where she graduated at the top of her class. Paul lived in many places, but she ultimately returned to Burlington County. She died in 1977 at the Greenleaf Extension Home, a Quaker facility in Moorestown before her at the Westfield Friends Burial Ground in Cinnaminson. Paul was 92.

Paul spent much of her life as a leader of the National Women's Party and the women's-rights movement. She became instrumental in the inclusion of women as a group protected against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Kim first introduced the Alice Paul Voter Protection Act in 2019, and Norcross joined him in 2021. But the bill never received a full vote from the House of Representatives in either of the previous two-year Congressional sessions.

Under the prior bills, any attempt to "corruptly hinder, interfere with, or prevent another person from registering to vote" would subject the offender to a fine, up to five years in prison or both.

"Alice Paul was a leader in ensuring and protecting the right to vote," Kim said in a statement. "It's important we honor her legacy by continuing her work, and I'm proud to introduce a bill inspired by that legacy that stands up for the rights of all Americans to have unfettered access to the ballot box."

Paul's legacy is enshrined at the Alice Paul Institute in Mount Laurel.