Gov. Murphy Signs New Law Expanding Voting Access In New Jersey

NEW JERSEY — Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Tuesday an expansion of early-voting availability throughout New Jersey. The Garden State became the 25th in the country to allow voters to cast ballots in-person before elections for a period that includes a weekend day.

Several state legislators, organizers and Fair Fight Action founder Stacey Abrams virtually joined Murphy as he signed the bill into law. Advocates for the bill juxtaposed New Jersey's actions with state legislatures working on laws expected to curtail voter turnout.

As of February, 43 states have introduced more than 250 bills with restrictive voting provisions, according to New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. But in that span, a different set of 43 states has introduced 704 bills to expand voting access, the Brennan Center for Justice says.

Murphy said bills that make voting more restrictive in New Jersey wouldn't pass under his governorship.

"Let me be perfectly clear," he said, "these bills will go nowhere except into the nearest recycling can."

How It Works

The bill develops an in-person early-voting procedure to allow people to cast votes beginning 10 days before a general election and ending the Sunday after an election, in specifically designated polling places.

Those who participate in early voting wouldn't be allowed to send a mail-in ballot or vote in-person on Election Day. Early voting would only be required for June primaries and November general elections. But under the law, cities and towns with May elections can adopt an early-voting period by passing a local ordinance.

New Jersey's new law requires each county to open three to seven polling places for early machine voting. For the upcoming November election, there would be nine days of early in-person voting, including two weekends.

"Implementing in-person early voting will take extraordinary effort and teamwork from our county clerks and election officials," said Secretary of State Tahesha Way. "I want to thank them in advance for the hours and energy they will dedicate to make in-person early voting a reality this year."

Murphy touted that New Jersey's new regulations create automatic voter registration, online registration, restored voting rights for people on probation and parole and an end to prison gerrymandering. New Jersey passed legislation last year to restore the voting rights of people on probation and parole.

"Automatic" registration doesn't mean the same in New Jersey as other locations. In Oregon, the policy means people automatically become enrolled to vote upon eligibility. But New Jersey requires people eligible to register on their own.

New Jersey adopted a form of "automatic" registration in 2018, allowing the Motor Vehicle Commission to automatically register eligible voters when they apply for a permit, license or ID card, unless the applicant declines registration.

By contrast, Murphy signed online voter registration into law last year.

As Murphy signed the bill, he also advocated for same-day voter registration and allowing 17-year-olds to vote "allowing 17-year-olds to register and vote in our primaries if they turn 18 by the General Election."

Twenty-one states allowed same-day registration as of October, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. More than a dozen states let 17-year-olds vote in primaries if they turn 18 by the General Election, according to Ballotpedia.

Murphy has long said he is a huge believer in early voting, but noted for some reason New Jersey has not been able to get a law passed to enable it.

"Just think about that for a second, if you're a senior, if you're vulnerable or you're working 80 hours a week and if you knew it was not just vote-by-mail which is a huge flexibility that takes some steam out of the challenge," he said in July. "But if you think of having not just one day to vote but had one place that was open per county that was open, say, 30 days before the election."

Murphy said that option would make it so voters weren't reliant on their work schedule or the weather.

"I continue to love it as an option," he said then.

The new law may not be 30 days, but it does provide flexibility Murphy was seeking for voters.

New Jersey ran its elections primarily by mail last November. Murphy and state officials received criticism because of limits to traditional, in-person voting. Only disabled voters could cast ballots to be counted on Election Day. All other registered voters could only cast provisional ballots at their polling places, but they wouldn't get counted until later that month.

But New Jersey saw its highest turnout ever in the November election — a trend replicated nationally. Garden State voters handed in 4.4 million mail-in ballots, and that figure doesn't count provisional ballots.

Abrams's home state of Georgia has been at the center of the voting rights discussion. Governor Brian Kemp approved last week a bill that imposes voter ID requirements for absentee ballots, empowers state officials to take over local elections boards, limits drop boxes and criminalizes approaching voters in line with food and water.

Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams for the governorship in a controversial 2018 race. During the election, Kemp retained his office as Georgia secretary of state, leading to accusations of conflicts of interest and voter suppression. After the election, Abrams founded Fair Fight 2020, which set to help Democrats to build voter protection teams in 20 states.

Republicans in Georgia cast the restrictions as necessary after the 2020 election saw now-former President Donald Trump make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

Conservative Critics

Conservative critics of New Jersey's new law had different criticisms. State Senator Kristin M. Corrado, a Republican, told The New York Times she supports early voting. But she voted against the measure, because she thought there wouldn't be enough time to properly implement it before Election Day.

“I hope we’re not setting everyone up for failure, but we’re just not there,” she told The Times. “We don’t have the machines. We don’t have the poll books. We don’t have the workers.”

Republicans also critiqued the legislation for barring police from being stationed within 100 feet of a polling place.

“I counted on my police department to make sure that my polling locations were OK and safe,” said Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce. “When I look at this bill, I look at it taking away some direction and responsibility that I had as a clerk making sure that my community was safe.”

This post contains reporting by Russ Crespolini