Bill allowing voters to request mail-in ballots online comes before full Senate Thursday

The full Senate will vote on a bill that would allow New Jerseyans to request a mail-in ballot online until the week preceding an election Thursday.

The measure, sponsored by Sens. James Beach (D-Voorhees) and Shirley Turner (D-Lawrenceville), would order the New Jersey Secretary of State to permit voters to request vote-by-mail ballots using its online voter registration website.

Requesting a mail-in ballot online would still add voters to the list of New Jerseyans who are to receive such ballots in perpetuity.

Lawmakers established that perpetual mail-in list in 2018. They did so again in 2020 after the New Jersey Council on Local Mandates invalidated the old law, ruling it was an unfunded mandate. The more recent bill included a $3 million appropriation.

The online mail-in bill unanimously cleared the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historical Preservation Committee in August, winning support its from its two Republican members, Sens. Chris Brown (R-Ventnor City) and Sam Thompson (R-Old Bridge).

But while the bill has been referred the Assembly State and Local Government Committee, the panel has yet to hear it, and that’ll likely remain the case until at least mid-February.

That committee is tentatively scheduled to meet on Feb. 17, a little more than a week before the chamber’s Feb. 25 voting session, but it’s not clear whether the online mail-in bill will be on the agenda then.

Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth), the bill’s first prime sponsor in the chamber, hasn’t yet requested a hearing on the measure, meaning it’s not a high priority three weeks out from next month’s meeting, though that could change in the intervening weeks.