Assembly panel moves bill aimed at protecting N.J. voters

An Assembly panel on Thursday approved a bill whose sponsor said will protect New Jersey’s voting system from weakening and protect voters from disenfranchisement.

Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), the bill’s prime sponsor in the lower chamber, said the bill focuses on protecting the rights of voters and ensuring citizens are not inhibited to vote due to their race or language. She said federal Republicans are threatening the American electoral process, including with the Trump administration’s raid of a Georgia elections office and the passage of a House bill requiring documented proof of citizenship before voting. 

“As we commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary—founded on the principle of ‘no taxation without representation’—we are confronted with the Trump administration’s intensifying desire to harm the integrity of our electoral process,” Reynolds-Jackson said. This makes the advancement of the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act even more critical than ever in order to safeguard our democracy.”

If passed, the legislation would establish an independent Division of Voting Rights tasked with overseeing state election laws. The bill bars policies that “unnecessarily deny or abridge the right to vote” and requires any policies that “burden” the right to vote to be narrowly tailored to minimize the policy’s potential collateral effect.

The Assembly State and Local Government Committee approved the legislation on party lines Thursday, 5-2. As of Friday morning, the bill is not on the Assembly’s board list for the Monday session. Identical legislation in the state Senate has not moved forward.

The legislation is named for the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a civil rights icon who, among other activism, led a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, before police attacked Lewis and other marchers.

“In 1965, on a day known now as ‘Bloody Sunday,’ Representative Lewis and other activists crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge to draw national attention to the voting discrimination Black Americans faced,” Reynolds-Jackson said. “Despite the brutality they faced, their brave actions helped pave the way for the Voting Rights Act. This legislation honors that work by ensuring this fundamental right is protected across New Jersey.”