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A bill that curbs the use of messengers to bring vote-by-mail [VBM] ballots to voters was signed into law on Monday by Governor Chris Christie.

Under the new law, designated messengers would be restricted to delivering VBM ballots to three voters in any election. The law currently allows a messenger to deliver 10 ballots.

A voter can designate a messenger on a VBM ballot application [shown above] to bring them a VBM ballot. The voter can mail in the completed ballot or designate a “bearer” to return it to the county clerk for them. The new law also restricts bearers to returning no more than three ballots per election.

The use of so-called messenger ballots has been controversial throughout the state. The last two Asbury Park municipal elections in 2013 and 2014 saw lawsuits filed by unsuccessful candidates from the A-Team slate seeking to open messenger ballots that were invalidated by the Monmouth County Board of Elections.

In both lawsuits, Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien sided with the Board of Elections. In the lawsuit O’Brien dismissed earlier this year, 343 VBM ballots were in dispute, almost all handled by designated messengers, who were coordinated by the A-Team campaign.

“This new law is critical to preventing manipulation of the voting process, and will reduce the opportunity for fraud and abuse of the system,” said Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon in a news release.

“We typically have a significant number of messengers and bearers in our elections in Monmouth County and it is important for our voters to be aware of these new laws.” Hanlon said. “The statute provides that the change will take effect immediately, meaning that this change will impact the 2015 September school and the November general elections.”

Hanlon was on the Monmouth County Board of Elections when it disqualified the messenger ballots in the past two Asbury Park elections. She left the board after becoming county clerk in May.

Last year, a former Paterson Councilman and his wife entered a probationary program to avoid further prosecution after being indicted on charges involving the use of messenger ballots. In past years, there have been convictions and guilty pleas in Atlantic City and Essex County involving messenger ballot fraud, although one former Atlantic City Councilman fought the charges and was found not guilty.

Just after last November’s elections in Atlantic County, the head of the county Democratic organization called for an investigation into the use of messenger ballots, after 800 messenger and vote-by-mail ballots catapulted Republican candidates to victory in school board elections in Pleasantville and Atlantic City, according to published reports.

The bill restricting the use of messenger ballots, sponsored by Senator James Whelan (D-Atlantic County), passed the Senate in June by a vote of 37-0. It passed the Assembly in December by a vote of 76-0. Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), who had sponsored a separate bill to restrict use of the messenger ballots, was a cosponsor of the bill signed by the Governor yesterday.

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