On April 3, Gov. Murphy signed into law P.L.2023, c.30, the “Election Transparency Act,” first introduced as S2866 on June 16, 2022. One of its most controversial provisions, which was only added by committee substitute on March 16 of this year, prematurely terminated the terms of the current Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), and allows the governor to make four new direct appointments to the ELEC board within 90 days of the bill’s enactment without the usual advice and consent of the Senate.

On March 31, after the bill had passed both houses, the three incumbent members of ELEC resigned, thus making moot the statutory termination of their terms, but the governor’s power to appoint four new members of the ELEC without advice and consent remains. Political commentators are attributing this unusual provision to the desire to give the governor a speedy pathway to remove the longtime executive director of ELEC, who reportedly has been asked to resign by the governor’s office but has thus far refused, and who by statute can only be removed by ELEC. The recently resigned members of ELEC had refused to take such action.

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