Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman SHAVONDA E. SUMTER
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
Assemblywoman VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes database with certain information about individuals elected to public office in this State.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act establishing a database with certain information about individuals elected to public office in this State and supplementing chapter 3 of Title 19 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. There shall be established in the Division of Elections in the Department of State a database containing the contact information for every elected public official in this State, including the gender and race of the elected public official.
b. No later than the seventh day after an individual has been certified as elected to an elective public office in this State, including an individual selected to fill a vacancy in an elective public office for the remainder of a term, the division shall transmit to the individual a form, developed by the Secretary of State, for completion that records: 1) the individual’s contact information, including full name, and the mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the individual’s elective public office, if any; 2) gender; and 3) race, using the same racial categories as required on the federal decennial census of the United States by the federal Bureau of the Census.
The division shall coordinate with the clerks of each county, the secretary of each Type II regional and municipal school district, and the secretary of each special district in which elections are held to insure that the form is transmitted to individuals elected to public offices in those instrumentalities.
Each completed form shall be transmitted to the division by the elected individual by mail or electronic means no later than the 10th day following the receipt thereof.
c. The division shall use the information from the forms received pursuant to subsection b. of this section, to establish separate databases of information on elected individuals, with at least one database sorted by gender and at least one sorted by race.
The information in each database shall be: 1) reviewed and updated by the division on a regular basis, but not less than annually, with the assistance and cooperation of the county clerks, school board secretaries in Type II districts, and the secretaries of special districts in which elections are held; and 2) available to the public at a convenient location on the website of the division.
2. This act shall take effect 90 days following the date of enactment, but the Secretary of State and the Division of Elections shall take such action in advance of that date as may be appropriate.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes in the
Division of Elections in the
Department of State a database containing the contact information for every
elected public official in this State, including the gender and race of the
elected public official.
The bill provides that no later than the seventh day after an individual has been certified as elected to any elective public office in this State, the division is to transmit to the individual a form for completion that records: 1) the individual’s contact information, including full name, and the mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the individual’s public office, if any; 2) gender; and 3) race, using the same racial categories as required on the federal decennial census of the United States by the federal Bureau of the Census.
The division is to use the information from the forms to establish separate databases of information on elected individuals, with at least one database sorted by gender and at least one sorted by race.
The information in each database would be reviewed and updated by the division on a regular basis, and available to the public at a convenient location on the website of the division.