19:53C-13 Opening of provisional ballot bag.

19. When the office of the commissioner of registration receives a provisional ballot bag that has been found to be in good order, the commissioner thereof shall first break the seal and open the bag. In any county where the superintendent of elections is the commissioner of registration, the county board of elections may sort the provisional ballots if so agreed to in advance by both the superintendent and the board. Envelopes marked "SPOILED" shall be set aside and remain unopened. The name, signature and other information contained on the form as supplied by a voter shall be compared with the name, signature and other information that the commissioner of registration has in the Statewide voter registration system for that voter. No affirmation statement shall be separated from a provisional ballot envelope until all affirmation statements have been reviewed by the commissioner of registration. After a comparison of the voter's address is completed by the commissioner of registration and prior to separating the affirmation statement from the envelope and counting the ballot, the letter "p" shall be placed adjacent to the voter's name in the Statewide voter registration system and on the signature copy register together with the name of the municipality in which the voter voted the provisional ballot. If two provisional ballots from the same voter are received, both such ballots shall not be counted, the affirmation statements shall not be separated from the envelopes, and the ballots shall be put aside for further investigation.

Whenever the address supplied by the voter on the affirmation statement does not match the address for such a person contained in the Statewide voter registration system, but it is clear that the circumstance of a voter matches the circumstance of a voter described in subsection b. of R.S.19:31-11, the updated information on the affirmation statement shall be recorded and shall constitute a transfer by the voter to a new address for any subsequent election.

After the examination of the affirmation statement by the commissioner of registration, the county board of elections shall determine if a provisional ballot voter is legally entitled to have voted and if a provisional ballot conforms to the requirements established by law.

The members of the county board shall then proceed to count and canvass the votes cast on each provisional ballot only after all of the provisional ballots cast in the county have been subjected to the verification process by the county commissioner of registration. Immediately after the canvass is complete, the county board of elections shall certify the results of the canvass to the county clerk or municipal clerk or other appropriate officials, as the case may be, showing the results of the canvass by municipality.

The outside front of each envelope that contains a voided provisional ballot shall have the word "VOID" written next to the circled number.

Unless provided otherwise by this section, all provisional ballot materials shall be processed by the county board of elections in accordance with the procedures established for absentee ballots pursuant to section 31 of P.L.1953, c.211 (C.19:57-31).

L.1999,c.232,s.19; amended 2005, c.145, s.20.