A state Senate panel on Thursday cleared voting-rights legislation that advocates say will bolster protections for New Jersey’s voters of color after a Supreme Court decision last month struck down many such provisions in federal law.
The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act along party lines. The state Assembly approved a slightly different version of the legislation in March.
The legislation, named for late Georgia congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, would expand translation and interpretation services for voters, direct officials to construe laws in favor of allowing voters to cast ballots, and allow state courts broader power to execute state election law.
Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), the bill’s prime sponsor in the Assembly, outlined the bill during testimony Thursday. The assemblywoman said the bill would require jurisdictions with a documented history of voter discrimination to obtain state approval of changes to election policies.
“This bill makes language access a permanent promise under New Jersey law,” she said. “No voters should be turned away because of the language they speak.”
She also said the bill is designed to prohibit voter suppression and intimidation based on race or language, and would establish an independent Division of Voting Rights with investigatory, rulemaking, litigation, and advisory authorities. The assemblywoman said that with Thursday’s vote, it has been released to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.
“This bill protects democracy in every corner of New Jersey,” Reynolds-Jackson said. “Voters have broken voting machines, late openings. Disabled voters continue to face access barriers at polling places. Language-minority voters still need meaningful access to the ballot. And this bill answers those challenges with the law, with structure, and enforcement.”
The Senate bill’s prime sponsors, state Sens. Shirley Turner (D-Lawrence) and Joe Cryan (D-Union Twp), celebrated the committee vote in a statement.
“Throughout the last several election cycles, we have seen voting rights come under attack across the country in ways that have raised serious concerns about access to our democratic process,” Turner said. “At a time when proposals are advancing nationally that could make it harder for eligible citizens to vote, especially for women and communities of color, it is critical that New Jersey continues working to protect and strengthen access to the ballot box.”
Republican legislators are less convinced.
State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), a moderate Republican who later abstained on the bill, asked the legislation’s supporters for evidence that aggressive reform is needed.
“I appreciate the emotion, I appreciate some of the serious attacks at the federal level,” Bramnick said. “But I need to hear some examples of where we have either this potential problem, or we have the problem, in order to say, ‘Hey, we have a clear and present danger here in New Jersey.’ I’m just not hearing that.”
Michael Pernick, senior counsel at the Legal Defense Fund, told Bramnick that while there might not be an immediate voting-rights crisis in New Jersey, the state should still implement several protections sooner rather than later.
“We’re not aware of any localities in New Jersey that we believe have engaged in racial vote dilution,” Pernick said. “We do, however, believe that there needs to be protection, there needs to be a baseline floor, and given last month’s opinion in Callais, we no longer have those protections at the federal level, and that’s why we’re urging all states across the country to step in and enshrine state-level protections.”
Still, Bramnick said he is concerned that there will need to be an “incredible number of court actions” to determine the bounds of the bill.
“If in a small municipality, there is an outcome where the same candidate wins over and over again, and the person is winning because of politics, not because a protected class has been affected; how do you make that determination?” Bramnick asked in his early remarks. “The state is now allowing this kind of litigation, I’m just not sure how you prove that underlying violation of this act.”
Creed Pogue, the Democratic chair of the Atlantic County Board of Elections, testified against the bill, expressing concerns that the legislation departs from “accepted evidentiary standards,” making it more difficult for election officials to meet the standard of “narrowly tailored” changes.
Alejandra Sorto, the associate director of civic engagement at the ACLU of New Jersey, said the Senate should pass the “strongest possible” version of the bill as soon as possible.
“We’ve seen the impact of the deliberate destruction of the federal Voting Rights Act – the racial turnout gap has consistently grown across the country in the last decade, including here in New Jersey,” Sorto said. “We urge the Senate to immediately advance a robust version of this bill and send it to Governor Sherrill’s desk to become law – our democracy depends on it.”