New Law Establishes System to Ensure Your Vote is Counted & Enables You to Track Your Mail-in Ballot Online
Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed legislation (A-4276) to “cure” any doubts about whether your mail-in ballot will be counted by Board of Election officials. Although voting by mail has been a safe and secure method to vote for many years in New Jersey, recently a small number of ballots were rejected due to deficiencies outside the control of the voter, such as lacking a postmark or having a physical defect such as a rip in the envelope or ballot.
The new law, referred to as the Ballot Cure Act, establishes provisions that require county Boards of Elections to record the rejection of a voter’s ballot and notify the voter within 24 hours of a decision to reject their ballot. The voter would have up to 48 hours prior to the date of the final certification of election results to provide a cure for their ballot by following the instructions on the “cure form” that will be provided via mail or email along with the notification of the ballot’s rejection.
The law also empowers voters by allowing them to check and track their ballot after they mail it or place it in a drop box. The law expands the online voter information website, which you can access at: https://nj.gov/state/elections
This measure also would provide remedies specifically for signature deficiencies, allowing voters to return a “cure form” to the county Board of Elections to verify their ballot. The Secretary of State would additionally need to publish signature-matching guidelines to ensure ballots are not needlessly invalidated during the authentication process due to slight and non-fraudulent causes of signature variance.
For this year’s General Election, return your mail in ballot as soon as possible! The Ballot Cure Act will ensure it is counted and also further eliminates possibilities for voting fraud.
