Sponsored by:
Senator ANTHONY M. BUCCO
District 25 (Morris and Somerset)
SYNOPSIS
Permits county board of elections to open inner envelopes containing mail-in ballots up to five days prior to date of an election.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the inner envelopes containing mail-in ballots and amending P.L.2009, c.79.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 22 of P.L.2009, c.79 (C.19:63-22) is amended to read as follows:
22. On the day of each election each county board of elections shall open in the presence of the commissioner of registration, or the designee thereof, the inner envelopes that contain the mail-in ballots with the votes cast for the election. A county board of elections may begin opening the inner envelopes and removing the mail-in ballots from the inner envelopes no earlier than five days prior to the day of the election. If a county board of elections begins opening the inner envelopes and removing the mail-in ballots from the inner envelopes prior to the day of the election, the voted mail-in ballots shall not be canvassed prior to the closing of the polls on the day of the election. The county board shall implement the measures necessary to ensure the security and secrecy of the mail-in ballots. The contents of the mail-in ballots shall remain confidential and shall be disclosed only in accordance with the provisions of Title 19 of the Revised Statutes and regulations concerning the disclosure of election results.
The inner envelopes containing the ballots that the board or the Superior Court has rejected shall not be so opened, but shall be retained as provided for by this act. The board shall then proceed to canvass the votes cast on the mail-in ballots, but no such ballot shall be counted in any primary election for the general election if the ballot of the political party marked for voting thereon differs from the designation of the political party in the primary election of which such ballot is intended to be voted as marked on the envelope by the county board of elections.
Every mail-in ballot that bears a postmark date before or of the day of the election and that is received by the county board within 144 hours after the time of the closing of the polls for the election that the ballot was prepared shall be considered valid and shall be canvassed. Every mail-in ballot that does not bear a postmark date but that is received by the county board by delivery of the United States Postal Service before, or within 48 hours after, the time of the closing of the polls for the election for which the ballot was prepared shall be considered valid and shall be canvassed.
Immediately after the canvass
is completed, the respective county boards of election shall certify the result
of the canvass to the county clerk or the municipal or district clerk or other
appropriate officer, as the case may be, showing the result of the canvass by
municipality and ward. The votes thus canvassed shall
be counted in determining the result of the election.
The county board of elections shall, immediately after the canvass is completed for any primary election, certify the results of the votes cast for members of the county committees to the respective municipal clerks, and those votes shall be counted in determining the result of the election.
(cf: P.L.2020, c.71, s.13)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
Under current law, the county board of elections process mail-in ballots promptly after receiving each mail-in ballot by removing the inner envelope containing the ballot from the outer envelope and comparing the signature and the information contained on the flap of the inner envelope with the signature and information contained in the respective requests for mail-in ballots. During the processing of mail-in ballots, the ballots are not removed from the inner envelopes until the canvassing of the ballots on the day of the election.
Under the bill, a county board of elections may begin opening the inner envelopes and removing the mail-in ballots from the inner envelopes no earlier than five days prior to the day of the election. A county board of elections is prohibited from canvassing the mail-in ballots prior to the closing of the polls on the day of the election. The county board of elections is required to implement the measures necessary to ensure the security and secrecy of the mail-in ballots. The contents of the mail-in ballots must remain confidential in compliance with current law and regulations concerning disclosure of election results.