ASSEMBLY, No. 1681
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED MARCH 4, 1996
By Assemblyman STUHLTRAGER
An Act concerning county boards of elections and amending R.S.19:6-22.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. R.S.19:6-22 is amended to read as follows:
19:6-22. The county boards shall, at 10 a.m., on the second Tuesday in March or on such other day as they may agree on within the first 15 days in March, in each year, meet at the courthouse, or other place as provided for, in their respective counties, and organize by electing one of their number to be chairman and one to be secretary; but the chairman and secretary shall not be members of the same political party.
In case of failure to elect a chairman [for] after three ballots or viva voce votes, the [senior] member [in age of] having the greatest seniority on the board shall be the chairman thereof[,and on]. In case of failure to elect a secretary [for] after three ballots or viva voce votes, the [next senior] member of the board [in age] having the greatest seniority shall be secretary of the board [; but], except that if that member has become chairman because of election to that position, the member with the next greatest seniority shall be secretary. In case of failure to elect both a chairman and a secretary after three ballots or viva voce votes, the member with the greatest seniority shall have the option to choose to become the chairman or the secretary of the board, and the member with the next greatest seniority shall take the position not chosen by the member having the greatest seniority. In no case, however, shall the chairman and secretary [shall not] be members of the same political party. Seniority for the purposes of this section shall be determined by the total amount of time that a person has served as a member of the board, beginning from the date and time that person took the oath of office as a member.
The boards shall have power in their discretion to hold their meetings for any purpose, except organization, in any part of their respective counties. Meetings may be called by either the chairman or the secretary of the board, or at the request of any two members.
(cf: P.L.1973, c.179, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill revises the statute providing for designation of the chairman and the secretary of the county board of elections in the event that the board is unable to fill either or both of those positions by election.
Under present law, if the board fails to elect a chairman, the board's oldest member is to be chairman, and in the event of such a failure to elect a secretary, the next oldest member is to become a secretary, subject to the condition that the chairman and secretary may not be members of the same political party.
Under the bill, if the board fails to elect a chairman, the member having greatest seniority on the board is to be chairman of the board. If the board fails to elect a secretary, the member of the board having the greatest seniority is to be secretary, except that if the member has been elected to the position of chairman, the member with the next greatest seniority is to be secretary. If the board fails to elect both a chairman and a secretary, the member with the greatest seniority shall have the option to choose to become the chairman or the secretary, and the member with the next greatest seniority shall take the position not so chosen. Such designations would still be subject to the condition that the chairman and the secretary may not be members of the same political party.
The bill provides that, for purposes of the legislation, a member's seniority on the county board of elections is to be determined by the total amount of time that the person has served as a member of the board, beginning from the date and time that the person took the oath of office as a member.
Revises method of selecting chairman and secretary of county boards of elections whenever members unable to do so after three ballots.