NJ Republicans Release Party’s Election ‘Wish List’ For 2021

NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Republican State Committee (NJGOP) has released a list of “common sense” recommendations that its members will be fighting for in 2021 and beyond.

Earlier this week, the NJGOP said that in the wake of the 2020 general election, its leaders have been listening to Republican voters sound off across the state, raising “many concerns” about the process in New Jersey.

In January, the NJGOP convened an election improvement committee to put together a set of recommendations about how to ensure “secure and fair elections” in the Garden State.

The committee’s members based their list on the following platform:

“The New Jersey Republican Party believes that New Jerseyans deserve an open and fair election where they can easily cast their vote, be sure their vote will be counted, and not be diluted by fraud or error. We oppose universal vote-by-mail and believe each voter should have the choice to vote in person or request a ballot. Only eligible, registered voters, residing in New Jersey, should receive ballots. We support common sense ballot security measures, like voter ID, coupled with free and easily accessible ID cards for all who need them. We support greater transparency in vote counting before, during and after Election Day. We believe voter confusion is voter disenfranchisement, that American elections should be conducted with American-made election equipment, and we oppose ballot harvesting.”

So what made the committee's list? Their recommendations include:

• Overhaul the statewide voter registration system.
• Join the Election Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-partisan nonprofit organization that assists states in maintaining an up-to-date voter registration system.
• Remove duplicate entries for single voters, remove deceased voters, and remove people who have moved.
• Create a mechanism for accuracy checks on registrations created at the MVC.
• Ensure voters are moved from active to inactive status after four straight missed general elections and are removed from receiving ballots by mail.
• Make an audit of results permanent standard operating procedure to ensure machine-counted ballot results match hand counted ballot results, and no hardware or software error occurred. Increase publicity efforts of these audit results.
• The 2020 election education campaign was a failure and must be improved to avoid further voter confusion and disenfranchisement.
• Improve the function and clarify the operation of the “Track My Ballot” website to avoid further voter confusion.
• County Boards of Elections should maintain a publicly available accounting of paper ballots received, counted, and received but not yet counted.
• The state of New Jersey should implement an automatic recount mechanism if an election is within 0.5%.
• Boards of Elections should employ additional bipartisan staff and scanners for ballot processing on and after Election Day, and more office staff before Election Day to answer questions from voters.
• Require nominating petitions to be available on January 1 and make permanent the validity of digital signatures on these petitions, with provisions for signature challenges.
• Reform the ballot cure process to include making available daily records of cure letters sent and received by the county.
• Ensure court access for all candidates and political parties on Election Day.
• Establish clear drop box standards in state law, including a process for verifying bearer rules are followed, and making video footage available to campaigns and political parties.
• The Legislature should pass legislation which requires the Secretary of State to create a website for voters to report irregularities regarding mail-in ballots and establishes “Vote by Mail Study Commission.”
• All future election equipment purchases should be equipment that is American-made by American majority-owned companies.

“Tens of thousands of votes cast throughout New Jersey were rejected this year,” the committee wrote. “Thousands more votes were never cast because of confusion, error, or inadvertent mistakes. Ensuring that the citizens of our state have confidence in their elections is critical.”

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