Do New Jersey’s voter laws need to be fixed? Our state representatives seem to think so and are willing to go to great lengths to make sure they become enacted into law. Senate President, Steve Sweeney, is most insistent that changes are needed and the laws we have now are antiquated.

Why is this issue even being addressed and why are they pushing very hard to make these changes so that they are written into the law books? The simple answer is that the Democrats want more voters and they of course need them to be registered Democrats. Per the NJ.com and the Washington Post Hillary Clinton is urging changes to our state voter laws which will in some way benefit the Democratic Party. What she wants is “federal legislation that would automatically register Americans to vote at age 18 and would mandate at least 20 days of early voting ahead of election days in all states.”

To quote what our representatives want to do, per NJ.com–

A) Require every county to set up from three to seven early voting polling locations where people could cast votes using paper ballots starting 15 days before the election.
Christie vetoed a similar bill two years ago, saying it “risks the integrity and orderly administration of our elections by introducing a new voting method and process,” and noting that voters can already cast early votes at county clerks offices or mail them in. Bill supporters say voters in more remote parts of counties shouldn’t have to travel to the county seat to cast their ballots.

B) Change rules to increase the number of registered voters. This includes setting up an online voter registration system by July 2016, and allowing residents to register to vote at polling places on Election Day and then cast provisional ballots. Those applying for driver’s licenses or non-driver IDs at Motor Vehicle Commission offices would be automatically registered to vote unless they specifically decline. And 17-year olds would be would be able to pre-register so they can vote after they turn 18.

C) Require that election notices and other pre-election materials mailed to voters be printed in more languages. Currently, materials must also be printed in Spanish if 10 percent of a county or voting district’s population speaks it as their primary language. Under the bill, that threshold would be reduced to 5 percent and it would apply to any language, not just Spanish.

Set up a clear procedure for filling vacancies for seats in the U.S. Senate, repealing the contradictory existing laws and limiting the governor’s power in appointing temporary Senators.

D) Currently, New Jersey’s law on filling a vacant Senate seat allows the governor to call a special election if he or she “shall deem it advisable.” Under the bill, Senate seats that become vacate more than 70 days before a general election would be filled at that election. All others would be filled at the next year’s general election. And while the governor would retain the right to pick an interim U.S. senator in the event of a vacancy, the choice would have to be from the same political party as the senator who had held the seat.

Gone would the governor’s ability to call a special election that doesn’t coincide with a regular general election, as Christie did with the October 2013 special election to replace the late Lautenberg. Christie ordered the special election a few weeks before his own election at a cost of $12 million. Critics say Christie did this to avoid having popular Democrat Cory Booker on the ballot during his election, which could have cut into his margin of victory.

Make state law a 1982 federal consent decree that blocked the Republican National Committee and New Jersey Republican State Committee from “undertaking any ballot security activities in polling places or election districts where the racial or ethnic composition of such districts is a factor in the decision” to conduct them. The consent decree, which came after New Jersey Democrats accused Republicans of seeking to disenfranchise minority voters in the 1981 gubernatorial election, still applies today but could expire in 2017. The new bill would apply its rules to the Democratic Party as well.

E) Lower the standard for challenging election results in court for alleged voter fraud, and require county board of elections to send the Secretary of State a report on all alleged voter fraud 30 days after an election, including how it was addressed.

This all comes under proposed bill dubbed the “Democracy Act”, Assembly Bill # 4574/ Senate Bill # 3040 with Sweeney and Loretta Weinberg as the primary sponsors. Please note as of June 18th there is no official information being displayed on the State of NJ Bill site.

Now I will discuss the above point by point.

A) This change makes no sense as there is already a way to vote early. Being far from a county seat is of no consequence when you can mail your vote(s) in. Maybe the only change that should be done is that the voting form should be available online.
B) Allowing voter registration online is a very dangerous thing to do, as it is next to impossible to verify who is actually registering. This will open the voting process to further voter fraud! Secondly allowing automatic voter registration at the MVC is very problematic at the very least. Again fraud and accidentally registering those persons not eligible to do so would happen.
C) The publication of election notices and pre-election materials in other languages is ridiculous to some extent. It is time to say enough is enough and stop this nonsense. Plus lowering the threshold down to 5 percent for the triggering point for the publication of notices and such is just a way to undermine the use of English.
D) This is just a political grab on the part of the Democrats to prevent any Governor from carrying out the powers already dictated in our New Jersey Constitution. They just did not like what Chris Christie did and how he went about doing it. What a petty bunch of legislators they are!
E) Lowering the standards for voter fraud is like saying quicksand is just water and sand. When we all know that it is quicksand and it is dangerous.
I must conclude that they should rename these changes as the Non-Democracy Act. Sometimes the public can not see the trees for the forest. If any of you really think that all these changes are for the public good, you need to take another close look at what is happening. This is a pure and simple political move to help more Democrats into office. If the Republicans were proposing this, there would be a great public outcry!

Also, I have heard rumblings about allowing voting via the Internet. Well have our wonderful legislators heard about how Federal Records of Employees working for the government have been stolen via the Internet and other frauds perpetrated via the Internet. The idea of secure records being kept on Internet connected computers is ludicrous! The time has not come when the idea of voting via the Internet can be guaranteed to be free from tampering.

In conclusion just leave things as they are, after all the present laws do work as they are.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike