Bill > A4100

Introduced Session

This bill requires an automatic recount of the results of any county or municipal election with a vote difference of 10 votes or less, at the request of a candidate. This bill also provides for the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, at the Chief Justice's discretion, to create geographic regions for assigned Superior Court judges to adjudicate election recounts and contests. The bill also establishes certain timelines for the adjudication and initial hearing of election recount and contest cases. Under current law, election recounts can be requested by a candidate for office or by a group of ten voters at any election. Under current law, the election of any person to any public office or party position, or the approval or disapproval of any public proposition, may be contested by the voters of this State or of any of its political subdivisions affected thereby upon one or more of the stipulated grounds. Election recounts or contests are heard by the appropriate Superior Court judge assigned to the county, or that judge assigned for this purpose by the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court in the case of Statewide matters. This bill would require an automatic recount, at the request of a candidate, to be conducted when any county or municipal election is decided by a vote differential 10 votes or less. The candidate would be required to make the recount request to the appropriate board or boards of elections within 24 hours after the certification of the election results. The recount would occur not later than three days after the certification of the election results. The appropriate board of elections or boards of elections, or persons designated by the boards, would conduct the automatic recount. The State would incur the costs of conducting an automatic recount. The bill also provides for the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, at the Chief Justice's discretion, to annually assign, not later than the Tuesday after Labor Day each September, a minimum of three Superior Court judges for each of the following designated regions to hear and adjudicate all election recount and contest matters: (1) the Northern Region, containing the counties of Union, Hudson, Essex, Morris, Bergen, Passaic, Warren, and Sussex; (2) the Central Region, containing the counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset; and (3) the Southern Region, containing the counties of Monmouth, Burlington, Ocean, Camden, Atlantic, Cape May, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Cumberland. The bill also provides for the Chief Justice to take into account any criteria the Chief Justice deems appropriate in creating the regions and determining the number of judges for each region, including, but not limited to, population, historical recount volume, and voter turnout. However, the bill allows for flexibility at the Chief Justice's discretion. Under the bill, the regions, the number of judges, and their names assigned to each region, would be published annually on the official website of the Judiciary Branch. The bill further provides that, in hearing and adjudicating election recount and contest matters, a judge assigned to a region would act individually and not as a panel. If an election recount or contest is filed in any one of the counties in a particular region, the next available judge in that region would be assigned that case. The assignment of election recount and contest cases would not be limited to a judge in the county of origin, rather to the availability of a judge in the region containing that county to hear the matter immediately. Under the bill, all matters related to a recount or contest would be heard and adjudicated prior to the assumption of office of the elected candidate, or the reorganization of the governing body to which the elected candidate was elected, as the case may be. In addition, all pleadings would be given an initial hearing within 36 hours of an initial filing, and all appeals would be given an initial hearing within 24 hours, or the next business day, of the appeal's filing.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Al Barlas (R)*,  Bob Auth (R),  John Azzariti (R),  Michele Matsikoudis (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee (on 04/04/2024)

Official Document