Bill > S3087

Introduced Session

This act, to be known as the "Voting Precinct Transparency Act," requires the filing of election district, county district, and municipal ward boundary data with the Secretary of State for posting and download online. The bill also requires the secretary to post as a single file a table or database containing the election results at the election districts level, in a manner that matches the election districts boundary data. Under current law, all municipalities in New Jersey are divided into election districts for election administration and voting purposes. For counties and municipalities that have adopted an optional charter as a form of government, current law also provides that those counties and municipalities may choose in their charter to be divided into county districts or municipal wards for the purpose of electing members of the governing body to represent those districts or wards. Currently, Essex, Atlantic, and Hudson counties are divided into county districts from which voters elect some or all of the members of the county governing body. Of the State's 565 municipalities, about 64 have chosen to establish municipal wards from which voters elect some or all of the members of the municipal governing body. This bill requires each districting authority (county board of elections for election districts, district commissioners for county districts, and ward commissioners for municipal wards) to file with the Secretary of State the election district, county district, and municipal ward boundary data, as appropriate, in ESRI Shapefile format. This file format is widely used with geographic information systems software. The Secretary of State is directed to make this boundary data available on the official website of the Division of Elections for download by the public free of charge. The bill also requires the secretary, within 90 days following the certification of the results of any election, or public question voted on by the voters, to make available on the same website a table or database containing the election results compiled at the election districts level. The election results table or database would be in a single file, in a comma-delimited values format, and would contain a unique identifier field for each election district that matches the unique identifier field for that district in the election districts Shapefile. The election results table or database would also be available for download by the public free of charge. The bill directs the Secretary of State, in consultation with the New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of Geographic Information Systems, to issue technical guidelines governing the preparation, maintenance, and submission of boundary files and election results files deemed necessary or desirable to accomplish the provisions of the bill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Linda Greenstein (D)*, 

Substituted by A4564 (2R) (on 01/13/2020)