Senate panel passes trio of voting bills

The Senate State Government Committee cleared a flurry of bills on Monday morning that legislators say will make it easier for New Jerseyans to vote. 

One bill, dubbed the Voter Convenience Act, would direct the secretary of state to develop guidelines that would allow New Jerseyans to vote at any polling place in their municipality on Election Day, as opposed to being assigned a certain polling location. The legislation, sponsored by committee chairman and state Sen. James Beach (D-Oaklyn), cleared the committee unanimously and would require municipalities to implement the policy.

Heather Richner, an associate counsel at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, said her organization supported the legislation but asked for amendments to ensure that towns don’t unnecessarily consolidate polling locations.

“Opening all polling locations in a municipality to residents really expands access to polls for Black voters and voters of color, and makes [voting] easier and more reflective of the state’s diversity,” she said.

Another bill, sponsored by Beach and state Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick), would require county clerks to send applications for mail-in ballots to registered voters when they turn 18. In New Jersey, 17-year-olds who will turn 18 by the date of the next general election are allowed to register to vote. If signed, counties would send mail-in ballot applications to those registrants, and the state would reimburse the cost.

A third bill, sponsored by Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Beach, would appropriate $100,000 to implement a public-awareness campaign about a U.S. Postal Service rule change that could affect mail-in ballots for future elections.

In New Jersey, election officials accept mail-in ballots up to six days after Election Day, as long as the ballot was postmarked by Election Day. But with changes to the USPS’s mail intake process, state officials worry that people who mail their ballots on time could still receive a postmark after Election Day, thus nullifying their ballots.

The USPS has said its policy for postmarking mail has not changed, but that mail is now postmarked in large central mail processing hubs instead of local facilities, potentially leading to a later postmarking date.

“While we are not changing our postmarking practices, we have made adjustments to our transportation operations that will result in some mailpieces not arriving at our originating processing facilities on the same day that they are mailed,” the Postal Service wrote in an online FAQ. “This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer’s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location.”

The bill would establish a campaign to inform voters of how the protocol adjustment could affect their mail-in ballots. Voters can request a manual postmark on the day they submit the ballot, the bill states; the legislation would also seek to increase usage of ballot drop boxes. The bill cleared committee unanimously.

Erik Cruz Morales of the League of Women Voters of New Jersey testified in favor of the legislation, saying the organization has received questions from voters who have heard about the USPS changes and wanted clarification before submitting their mail-in ballots.

“This is causing a lot of confusion and concern among voters and will continue to do so if not addressed,” he said.

The Trump administration has challenged the practice of accepting mail-in ballots days after Election Day. The president issued an executive order last year barring states from counting such ballots, but judges have struck down the provision in many states.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard a case challenging a Mississippi law that allows a five-day grace period; should the conservative majority strike down the legality of counting such ballots, New Jersey will be tasked with overhauling its mail-in ballot policies.