the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A New Jersey government panel has struck down the state’s automatic vote-by-mail enrollment law as an unconstitutional unfunded mandate.
The Council on Local Mandates, which is independent of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of State government, was created pursuant to the “State Mandate, State Pay” amendment to the New Jersey Constitution, approved by voters in November 1995, and an enabling statute, the Council Statute, that became effective in May 1996.
Initially the Council appeared to siding in favor of the current law but according to the Burlington County Times on Friday found against it .
The law, first enacted in 2018 and then amended this past summer, requires county clerks to automatically issue vote-by-mail ballots to registered voters who previously requested them for any upcoming election. Previously, voters had to request a new vote-by-mail ballot for each election.
The change was credited with a surge in voter participation last year, but prompted the New Jersey Association of Counties to file a complaint with the state’s Council on Local Mandates that the law violates the state constitution’s prohibition on unfunded mandates due to the expenses it placed on county clerks to process, print and mail thousands of additional mail-in ballots to voters before each election.
The little know “Council of Local Mandates” announced Friday that the panel had unanimously sided with the counties and ruled that the law’s requirements should “cease to be mandatory in their effect and shall forthwith expire.”
“In absence of any funding of the mandate, we find and determine that the challenged laws constitute unfunded mandates,” the council said in a memo announcing its decision. A more-detailed written opinion is expected to be released later.
It’s not immediately clear how the decision will impact upcoming elections across the state, though it could mean that voters will need to request a so-called “absentee ballot” before each election if they want to vote by mail. Under New Jersey law, voters do not have to give a reason for requesting a vote-by-mail ballot.