Republican lawmakers say they’re hopeful the governor’s new comments expressing support for voter ID legislation could push long-stalled bills toward hearings when the Legislature returns to Trenton in the fall.
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“I absolutely think this should be one of the top priorities when we come back into session,” said Sen. Michael Testa (R., Cumberland). “There absolutely needs to be a discussion, and the people of New Jersey deserve that discussion to be had.”
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, said last week during an appearance on News 12 that she would support a voter ID law in New Jersey if legislation reached her desk.
“Certainly if that was the law passed here, I would support that,” she said, responding to a viewer’s question. “I don’t have a problem with voter ID.”
Sherrill’s comments come on the heels of her revealing that thousands of noncitizens were registered to vote via the state Motor Vehicle Commission, and fewer than 400 of them cast ballots. The revelation led to a new round of voter fraud complaints from Republicans in New Jersey and nationwide, while the Trump administration demanded information about the voters in question. Sherrill declined to share that data and has said the state is conducting an independent investigation.
Sen. Parker Space (R., Sussex) is a sponsor of a bill that would require voters to show identification to cast ballots, including a driver’s license, a Real ID, or a passport, among others, and those without them would have to show utility bills in their name, a mortgage or rental statement, or two pieces of mail from a government agency or utility company. Any voter who does not show these would be subject to a challenge.
Space said he was encouraged by the governor’s remarks that his bill — which has been introduced three times since 2022 but has never advanced to a committee hearing — could finally be posted for a vote.
“Hopefully she stands by her word and we can get the Legislature on board,” he said.
He noted that the issue hasn’t historically been a priority for Democratic legislative leadership, which decides which bills advance.
Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R., Monmouth) has sponsored the bill in the lower chamber since 2022. He said he proposed legislation with more options for voters besides showing just photo identification because he thought it would get some support from Democratic lawmakers, though he concedes that has not worked so far.
The new voter registration issue, Scharfenberger said, shows the “walls are closing in, as far as the Democrats being able to avoid this issue.”
“There’s no way they can avoid addressing this. If I could be a little bit of a forecaster here, I think the more information they find out about the motor vehicle issue, the more those numbers are going to grow,” he said. “It’s become too much with the public psyche, and I think we’re going to have to address it with solid legislation, and not just token tweaks here or there.”
Testa said he was “pretty shocked” to hear Sherrill’s comments on supporting voter ID, but “pleasantly surprised.”
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He’s the co-sponsor of a voter ID bill that would require a voter to show one of four forms of photo ID: a driver’s license, a Real ID, an identification-only card issued by the Motor Vehicle Commission, or a U.S. passport. He said it’s easier to train ballot workers on how to validate just these forms of ID.
“We’ve done everything in this state to be able to allow individuals to vote by mail, to expand the time period for vote by mail, to give people more locations to go vote — and I don’t necessarily have a major problem with any of these modalities for people to vote — but if you’re going to vote on Election Day, you should have a photo ID,” he said.
A spokesman for Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D., Union) did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D., Middlesex) declined to comment.
Thirty-six states have laws requiring voters to show some form of ID at the polls, and eight of those strictly require photo ID.
But voting rights groups say there are decades of studies showing certain communities are less likely to have access to photo ID. Liza Weisberg, supervising attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said people who are homeless, young voters, and communities of color are the “most likely to face disenfranchisement.”
She called Sherrill’s comments on voter ID a “moment of concern.” Seven advocacy groups — including the ACLU, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and the League of Women Voters — sent Sherrill a letter Friday urging her to reject voter ID legislation outright.
They noted that state law already requires people to provide a driver’s license number or their Social Security number to register to vote.
Weisberg said the recent voter registration news doesn’t justify implementing voter ID, noting the newly registered voters in question represent a “small fraction” of the state’s voters, with an even smaller group actually casting a ballot. Sherrill initially said about 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens at the Motor Vehicle Commission were added to the voter rolls, and later said about 2,000 of them may indeed be citizens. The state has 6.7 million registered voters.
“I really hope that there is not an effort to continue using this event to justify voter suppression efforts that really don’t have anything to do with it,” Weisberg said.
Republicans dismissed arguments that voter ID laws disproportionately burden low-income, elderly, minority, and young voters. They noted multiple reasons people need to show photo ID, like renting a car or applying for food stamps.
Testa called the disenfranchisement argument “very, very pompous,” saying it suggests that voters could be “ill-equipped or too stupid” to obtain a photo ID. Scharfenberger called it “the most racist position I’ve ever heard,” and Space said those arguments “pander to the far left and liberal media.”
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This story originally appeared on New Jersey Monitor.