Bill > S649

Introduced Session

This bill allows the district board of election or the commissioner of registration, as the case may be, to provide a copy of the primary election and school election sample ballots by electronic mail instead of regular mail to any registered voter in the election district who is eligible to participate in that election, and who requests to receive the sample ballot by electronic mail. Under current law, such sample ballots must be printed and mailed to each eligible registered voter. The bill further provides that the electronic mail address of any voter who requests to receive a sample ballot by electronic mail would not be a government record as defined in section 1 of P.L.1995, c.23 (C.47:1A-1.1), also known as the "Open Public Records Act," would not be available for public inspection or copying, and must be redacted from any document that it is a part of. The bill directs the Secretary of State, in collaboration with the election officials in this State, to develop standard procedures to effectuate the provisions of the bill. These procedures would include, but may not be limited to: (1) establishing a method to inform all voters of the opportunity to receive a sample ballot and other materials by electronic mail, and by which a voter can notify election officials of his or her desire to obtain a ballot and other materials by electronic mail in lieu of receiving them by regular mail; (2) maintaining the confidentiality of the voter electronic mail addresses; and (3) providing notice and opportunity for a voter who has requested to receive a sample ballot and other materials by electronic mail to request to again receive the sample ballot and other materials by regular mail.

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Jim Beach (D)*, 

Referred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee (on 05/31/2018)