ASSEMBLY STATE GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 240
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MARCH 12, 2007
This concurrent resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to revise current language in the New Jersey State Constitution concerning denial of the right of suffrage. The proposed amendment deletes the phrase “idiot or insane person” and replaces it with the phrase “person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting.” The amendment denies the right of suffrage to those individuals determined by a court, on a case-by-case basis, to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting.
This concurrent resolution is a companion bill to Assembly Bill No. 4030 of 2007, which amends N.J.S.A.19:4-1 concerning the requirements for voting in New Jersey. The statute contains the same language as the Constitution with respect to disqualifying a person “who is an idiot or insane.” Assembly Bill No. 4030, therefore, would revise the language in the statute to be consistent with that of the proposed constitutional amendment.
Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 240 is identical to Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 134 of 2007.