New Jersey Statutes 19:4-18. “Voting Precinct Transparency Act.”
Terms Used In New Jersey Statutes 19:4-18
- Election: means the procedure whereby the electors of this State or any political subdivision thereof elect persons to fill public office or pass on public questions. See New Jersey Statutes 19:1-1
- Election district: means the territory within which or for which there is a polling place or room for all voters in the territory to cast their ballots at any election. See New Jersey Statutes 19:1-1
- filed: means deposited in the regularly maintained office of the public official wherever said regularly maintained office is designated by statute, ordinance or resolution. See New Jersey Statutes 19:1-1
- General election: means the annual election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November and, where applicable, includes annual school elections and annual fire district elections held on that date. See New Jersey Statutes 19:1-1
- Public question: includes any question, proposition or referendum required by the legislative or governing body of this State or any of its political subdivisions to be submitted by referendum procedure to the voters of the State or political subdivision for decision at elections. See New Jersey Statutes 19:1-1
- State: extends to and includes any State, territory or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia and the Canal Zone. See New Jersey Statutes 1:1-2
b. The Secretary of State shall make available on the official website of the Division of Elections in the Department of State the election district, county district, and municipal ward boundaries required to be filed with the Secretary of State pursuant to section 7 of P.L.1976, c.83 (C. 19:4-16), section 121 of P.L.1972, c.154 (C. 40:41A-121), and section 7 of P.L.1981, c.496 (C. 40:44-15), respectively. The boundary files shall be in ESRI Shapefile format and available for download by the public free of charge, upon implementation of a compatible Statewide Voter Registration System.
c. Within 90 days following the certification of the results of any special, primary, school, municipal, or general election, and of any public question voted by the voters at an election, pursuant to Title 19 of the Revised Statutes, the county clerk of each county shall make available on their official website a table or database containing the election results compiled at the election districts level. If feasible, the table or database shall include the results of mail-in ballots delineated by election district.
The election results table or database shall be in a single file, in a comma-delimited values format, and shall contain a unique identifier field for each election district that matches the unique identifier field for that district in the election districts Shapefile. In the event that election results specific to mail-in ballots are unable to be included in the table or database created pursuant to this subsection, the votes by mail-in ballot for a particular candidate shall be included in a separate table or database. A mail-in ballot received and counted shall not be attributed in the table or database to an election district or other geographic unit in which the voter does not reside. The election results table or database shall be available for download by the public free of charge.
d. The Secretary of State, in consultation with the New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of Geographic Information Systems, shall issue technical guidelines governing the preparation, maintenance, and submission of boundary files and election results files deemed necessary or desirable to accomplish the provisions of this section.
L.2019, c.487, s.1.