ASSEMBLY, No. 302

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblyman ROONEY

An Act concerning sample ballots for school elections and amending N.J.S.18A:14-29.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. N.J.S.18A:14-29 is amended to read as follows:

    18A:14-29. The secretary of each board of education [of a type II special needs school district, as defined pursuant to P.L.1990, c.52 (C.18A:7D-1 et seq.), located in a city of the first class having a population in excess of 300,000 according to the 1980 federal decennial census,]shall prepare sample ballots for each school election and shall mail those sample ballots to the registered voters of the municipality comprising the school district in which the election is to be held. [The board of education of all other school districts may, by resolution, direct the secretary of the board to prepare sample ballots and mail those ballots to the voters of the municipalities comprising the school district in which the election is to be held. Those sample] Sample ballots, as nearly as possible, shall be facsimiles of the official ballots to be used at [such] the election or, in districts in which voting machines are used, shall be facsimiles in reduced size of the face of the machine so to be used, but shall be printed on paper different in color from the official ballot and shall have the following words printed in large type at the top: "This ballot cannot be voted. It is a sample copy of the official school election ballot to be used on election day." Sample ballots shall also have printed thereon the street address or location of the polling place or places for the school election, the date of the election and the hours during which the polls will be open.

(cf: P.L.1991, c.52, s.1)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to any school election which follows enactment by at least 30 days.

STATEMENT

    This bill requires the secretary of each board of education to mail sample ballots to registered voters in the school district whenever that district holds an election. Under current law, the mailing of sample ballots is optional for all districts other than Newark. The bill also specifies that the sample ballots shall contain information regarding the location of the polling places and the date of the election along with the hours during which the polls will be open.

Requires the mailing of sample ballots for school elections.