N.J. among nation’s worst in making sure elections are secure. Why haven’t we fixed that? NJ.com 2 mins ago Jonathan D. Salant, nj.com
After President Donald Trump and his Republican allies singled out Georgia and Arizona in falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, both states recounted their votes and found no significant problems.
That’s not so easy to do in New Jersey after each election. It’s one of just six states that do not require a paper trail that allows election officials to check that voting machines were not hacked and the results not tampered with.
The county is responsible to pay for the general election in its entirety, with the local governments paying for primaries, Parrott wrote.
The deputy county clerk s original letter explained that state mandates stemming from the 2018 and 2019 election changes in the state, raised costs because they require counties to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters. Those mailed ballots include special envelopes to return the ballots by mail, or to bring it to a drop-off box. In addition to the cost of producing the ballots, there is an extra postage charge for those sent back via mail.
It wasn t until the federal election of 2020, a presidential election and its increase in the number of voters, that the added expense was apparent. The pandemic cut down on people who voted in person and increased the number of ballots mailed back.
Credit: (NJGOV)
New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way
Lawmakers heaped praise on New Jersey’s secretary of state for helping drive a huge response among state residents, despite a raging pandemic, to last year’s U.S. census count.
But they also used a wide-ranging budget hearing Monday to voice concerns about whether Gov. Phil Murphy has set aside enough money to ensure a new early voting law can be implemented statewide without major hiccups.
The Assembly Budget Committee hearing with Secretary of State Tahesha Way and other top Department of State officials was the latest as lawmakers in both houses review a $44.8 billion budget plan that Murphy, a first-term Democrat, has put forward for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
A comprehensive study of the cost of implementing New Jersey’s early voting law shows taxpayers will have to pony up $77 million this year alone just to pay for new voting machines and other essential hardware.
That is almost four times the amount set aside in this year’s budget to finance the landmark law, and it does not include millions more needed for the hiring and training of poll workers, facility upgrades and a range of other ongoing expenses.
“We’re very disappointed that the governor’s budget does not provide anywhere near enough money,” said John Donaddio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties, which carried out the study and based its findings on data from all 21 counties. “We have no indication where the rest will come from.”
New Jersey: in-person voting before Election Day? njspotlight.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from njspotlight.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.