Bill to allow for early vote counting fails in New Jersey Senate

A bill that would allow elections officials to count votes ahead of Election Day failed in the state Senate on Thursday. .

After a relatively lengthy debate during which a bipartisan group of senators raised concerns about the legislation, Senate President Nick Scutari pulled the measure from the board after its total hung at 20 yes votes to 16 no votes — one vote short of passage.

The bill, NJ S856 (22R), would allow county boards of elections to open and count mail-in ballots beginning 10 days before Election Day and for county clerks to tally in-person early votes 24 hours after that voting period ends.

Vote counting was slow in some counties in last year’s election. Because of that, high-profile politicians like Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli and Senate President Steve Sweeney took more than a week to concede their races.

Concerns: The bill is similar to a measure that was put in place for only the 2020 election, which was conducted almost entirely by mail-in ballot because of the pandemic. But while there were no reported problems with that law, several senators — including one Democrat — raised concerns about results leaking out and giving certain candidates advantages, even though doing so would be a third-degree crime.

“I believe allowing the opening of the mail-in ballot 10 days before Election Day is too much of a time frame and too much of a temptation,” Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-Passaic) said during Thursday's floor debate. “It may very well impact and taint the results of our free and fair elections.”

Sen. Nia Gill (D-Essex) said the bill does not specify guidelines for counting, leaving that up to the secretary of state.

“Look, we can have some civic patience,” she said. “This bill does not provide structural and statutory issues around counting it three days early. Let’s wait.”

Supporters argued the 2020 early counting did not cause problems.

“If we don’t get back to a place where we know election results on election night, we’re going to get conspiracy theories, we’re going to get people saying things went wrong,” said Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth), who at the end of Election Day was trailing his Republican opponent by 500 votes, but wound up winning by 2,700 once all the ballots were counted.

What’s next? Democrats likely would have had the votes to pass the measure had three of their members not been absent, so the bill could come up for another vote at the Senate's next voting session.

But a companion bill is not scheduled for a vote in the Assembly later Thursday, and Cecilia Williams, a spokesperson for the Assembly Democrats, indicated that they’re not in line with their counterparts in the Senate.

A different Assembly bill that moved through committee on May 12, NJ A3822 (22R), would allow early counting of mail-in ballots beginning five days before the election and does not address counting of in-person early votes before Election Day.

“Focused on enhancing public trust, the Assembly and Senate are both working on election reforms to promote a transparent and predictable voting system,” Williams said. “We have different approaches to achieve that shared goal, which is often the case on any number of issues we tackle, and we look forward to engaging in a productive conversation with the Senate on this.”

A spokesperson for the Murphy administration, Alyana Alfaro, declined to comment on the legislation.