An Act sample ballots for fire district elections and supplementing chapter 14 of Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes.

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

1. a. The clerk of the board of fire commissioners shall cause samples of the official election ballot to be printed in English, but for each district in which the primary language of 10 percent or more of the voters is another language, the clerk shall cause samples to be printed in English and in that other language.

b. No later than the 30th day before the day of the election, the clerk of the board shall secure from the clerk of the county in which the fire district is located a complete list of the mailing address of each registered voter residing in the district. The clerk of the board shall use the address list to mail one official fire district election sample ballot to each such registered voter on or before 12 noon on the Monday preceding the election. The clerk shall also post a copy of the sample ballot in the polling place in the fire district where the election is to occur prior to the opening of the polls for that election.

c. The sample ballots shall be as nearly as possible facsimiles of the official election ballot to be voted at such election and shall have printed thereon, after the words which indicate the number of the fire district for which such sample ballots are printed, the name of the fire district, the street address or location of the polling place in the fire district, the hours between which the polls shall be open, and have the following words printed in large type at the top: "This ballot cannot be voted. It is a sample copy of the official fire district election ballot used on election day."

d. The envelopes for the sample ballots shall be of sufficient size and have sufficient postage to enable the sample ballots and anything else required to be enclosed therewith to be mailed therein.

On the face of each envelope shall be printed the words "Official Fire District Election Sample Ballot" in large type and in small type in the upper left-hand corner, the words: "If not delivered in two days return to the 'Clerk of the Board of Fire Commissioners'" and in the lower left-hand corner shall be printed the words "Municipality" followed by a line " ," " district" followed by a line " ," arranged in two lines one under the other.

e. The clerk of the board of fire commissioners shall collect and forward to the board of elections of the county in which the fire district is located all envelopes and sample ballots that were mailed by the clerk of the board and returned thereto as undeliverable. The envelopes and ballots shall be open to public inspection in the office of the county board of elections for three months after the day of the election.

f. The cost for preparing sample ballots and mailing one to each registered voter who resides in the fire district shall be the responsibility of the district's board of fire commissioners.

g. Unless otherwise provided for by P.L. , c. (C. )(pending before the Legislature as this bill), the procedures for the creation and distribution of sample ballots for a fire district election shall be as identical as possible to those provided for all elections by Title 19 of the Revised Statutes.

2. This act shall take effect on January 1 next following the day of enactment.

STATEMENT

The purpose of this bill is to require fire districts to prepare and distribute sample ballots before the annual elections, which are held on the third Saturday in February each year. Under the bill, the cost for preparing the sample ballots and mailing one to each registered voter who resides in the fire district would be the responsibility of the district's board of fire commissioners.

At present, Title 19 of the Revised Statutes prescribes the manner in which sample ballots are to be prepared and distributed before primary, general and special elections. The provisions of the bill mirror those requirements.