Councilman Steven Fulop to Introduce Municipal Election Legislation
Proposal to Move Jersey City Elections from May to November

Jersey City- Friday, January 8, 2010: Councilman Steven Fulop (www.stevenfulop.com) announced today that at the second Jersey City Council meeting in January he will introduce an ordinance based on yesterday’s exciting and groundbreaking legislation. Both the Senate and the State Assembly passed legislation that was sponsored over one year ago giving municipalities the ability to move elections from a lower turnout May election to a higher turnout November general election. 

The new legislation allows, for the first time ever, municipalities with nonpartisan forms of government, such as Jersey City, the option of holding their May elections on the same day as everyone else – during the general election in November. Before this, state law called for New Jersey nonpartisan elections to be held–at significant cost and with lower voter turnout–during the second week in May.

“This will not only save Jersey City significant cash, but it makes sense. It is challenging to get the people to come out for each election, when they are held at incongruent times,” said Councilman Steven Fulop. “We should move the elections to the people. I have been watching this legislation for the past year and believe it could fundamentally change how cities like mine are run. This is crucial for Jersey City to reach beyond the political machine to have a more representative election.”

In the Jersey City 2009 May election approximately 30,000 voters participated while in the November election nearly 39,000 voters came out representing a 33% increase in turnout1 . Throughout the rest of the State, 86 of the 566 municipalities hold non-partisan elections in May, and are now eligible to move those elections to November. Those include Newark and Jersey City, the two largest municipalities in the state along with Trenton, Hoboken, Clifton, Nutley, and Cedar Grove among others.