With Facebook and Twitter and other social media now used by politicians to galvanize voters more than ever, it was only a matter of time for electronic poll books to enter the political landscape.

A bill sponsored by two lawyer-legislators, Patrick J. Diegnan, D-Middlesex, and Linda Greenstein, D-Mercer, to permit a county commissioner of registration and board of elections to use electronic poll books was signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy.

“As states explore new technologies to facilitate the voting process, the use of electronic poll books is becoming increasingly prevalent,” Diegnan said in a statement on May 2. “Traditionally, voting jurisdictions have had paper poll books that contain a list of eligible voters in the district or precinct.

“E-poll books, which typically come in the form of a laptop or tablet, have the ability to do much more than look up eligible voters, and will assist in making voting much easier,” he said. “E-polling will … make voting easier for voters and poll workers.”

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, electronic poll-books are electronic versions of the voter rolls that can be used to process voters at the polls instead of a paper-based list.

The new law will permit a county commissioner of registration and county board of elections to adopt the use of such books and require the secretary of state to also adopt them, as well as publish electronic standards and regulations governing their certification and use within 90 days.

If the secretary of state receives a request for approval to review compliance of standards and regulations of certain electronic poll books, the request will be reviewed within 10 days, according to the law.

E-polling arrives less than a year before New Jersey undertakes U.S. Census 2020, a new census count that's expected to realign political districts and potentially impact political futures. Census 2020 will rely on digital submission of data for the first time, and officially begins April 1, 2020.

Greenstein, co-sponsor of the legislation, said, “E-polling will bring our elections into the 21st century.”

“Voters will be able to sign in electronically while also allowing poll workers to easily redirect voters to correct polling locations,” she said in the same release. “The system will be able to notify poll workers if a voter has already voted absentee or during the early voting period, giving them the most up to date information.”

The bill, introduced last March 7, moved swiftly through both Assembly and Senate committees with no apparent opposition. It was voted out of the full Assembly by a 78-0-0 vote and by the Senate 35-0 on March 25.