NJ: Governor signs bill allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primaries
Gov. Phil Murphy has signed legislation allowing 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections as long as they’ll turn 18 before the general election, adding a small but potentially impactful new pool of voters to the state’s primary electorate beginning in 2026.
“Across government, we see how the decisions we make today impact future generations,” Murphy said of the bill, titled the New Voter Empowerment Act. “I am proud to sign legislation that expands access to the ballot box while engaging and empowering a new generation of voters.”
The governor’s signature is a long-belated victory for State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick), who first introduced the bill as an assemblyman in 2016; it was the first bill he ever authored in the legislature.
That session, it passed both the Senate and the Assembly but was vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Christie, who said that allowing 17-year-olds to vote in any election was “legally questionable.” Christie left office in 2018, but Zwicker struggled to marshal the same legislative support behind the bill after he was gone, and it got stuck in purgatory for several years. Zwicker said the delay was largely because the legislature shifted its focus towards other voting-related issues during the Covid pandemic.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/voters/murphy-signs-bill-allowing-17-year-olds-to-vote-in-primaries/