SENATE STATE GOVERNMENT, WAGERING, TOURISM & HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
SENATE RESOLUTION Nos. 97 and 99
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: MAY 21, 2026
The Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee reports favorably a Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Resolution Nos. 97 and 99.
As substituted by the committee, this resolution reaffirms New Jersey’s commitment to protecting the voting rights of all eligible United States (US) citizens and condemns President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14399 aimed at restricting mail-in voting, and urges Congress to reject any efforts that would negatively impact women’s suffrage, including the “SAVE America Act.”
On March 31, 2026, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14399 on mail-in voting that attempts to impose new federal controls over how states administer elections. The Trump administration is ordering the US Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Social Security Administration, to use various databases and information sources to compile lists of US citizens residing in each state who will be 18 years or older at the time of the next election. These databases contain sensitive information and any data matching would need to proceed with the utmost concern for data privacy and security, a process that would take years, not the few months that the order requires. The use of incomplete or mismatched federal databases to create a federal citizenship list risks disenfranchising eligible voters.
Executive Order 14399 requires states to provide the names of registered voters who are eligible to receive mail-in ballots to the US Postal Service (USPS) in advance of each regularly scheduled federal election and orders the USPS to withhold ballots from people who are not on the state voter lists. State and local officials who do not comply with the order are threatened with a loss of federal funds and legal consequences.
Additionally, Congress is considering the “SAVE America Act,” which would mandate that every person provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and provide photo identification that matches the citizenship documentation when voting. The act’s requirement for in-person voter registration or updates with elections officials would effectively end voter registration online, by mail, and through community registration drives where elections officials are not present, thus disproportionately impacting working parents, caregivers, the elderly, and survivors of domestic violence who may lack the required documentation or stable records. Many Americans, including married women, have changed their names since birth and now have photo identification with names that do not match their birth certificates. Requiring documentary proof of citizenship tied to birth records could disenfranchise millions of Americans, particularly women who have changed their names due to marriage or divorce.
When New Jersey adopted its first constitution on July 2, 1776, it granted certain women in the State the right to vote. Over the years, New Jersey extended the right to vote to more women until that right was taken away in 1807, when the New Jersey Legislature passed a law restricting suffrage to tax-paying White men.
Women in New Jersey and across the nation fought for more than a century through protesting, bringing legal challenges, attempting to vote, conducting hunger strikes, being verbally and physically attacked by the public and the police, being arrested during protests, authoring papers, and more in a hard-won fight for suffrage. Even after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, many women, especially women of color, faced barriers to voting, such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and violent intimidation, until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Women’s right to vote is once again under attack, as the President and Congress are pursuing efforts to make voting less accessible to Americans across the country.
While the proponents of these measures argue that they are necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting, there is overwhelming evidence that it is extremely rare for non-citizens to vote in elections, and these measures are far more likely to prevent many US citizens from voting than to address those limited instances. New Jersey believes in ensuring that every citizen’s right to vote is not compromised and opposes any federal action that would roll back the progress secured through generations of women’s suffrage advocacy. Free, fair, and accessible elections are a core constitutional function of the states and a cornerstone of a functioning democracy, and Executive Order 14399 and the “SAVE America Act” threaten to undermine the integrity of the elections process in this State and across the nation.