Today, Governor Murphy signed Executive Order 132, allowing electronic petition submission and signature collection for initiatives and referenda. The Order requires county and municipal clerks to accept, in addition to hand delivery, electronic submission of initiative and referendum petitions. Clerks must also accept petitions with signatures collected via an online form.
The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Department of Law and Public Safety will be creating a generic template of this form which will be available May 1, 2020. Once this form is made available municipal clerks must require that signatures be gathered via the only template form, while any hand signatures obtained prior to the issuance of the Order will also be accepted. In addition, requirements that a petition circulator provide a notarized affidavit attesting to the validity of the signatures on the petition has been suspended by the Order. However, petition circulators will be required to attach a signed statement verifying all petition requirements.
The Order takes effect April 29, 2020 and shall cease upon termination of the Order.