Altered votes on public records bill draw criticism

The board showing senators’ May 13 votes on the bill revamping the Open Public Records Act. Two of these votes would later change. (Nikita Biryukov | New Jersey Monitor)

The voting sessions for the bill that would overhaul New Jersey’s public records law were chaotic, with aides running around whispering in lawmakers’ ears and leaders whipping votes in backrooms until just before the moment when the controversial bill narrowly passed.

Things were a bit chaotic even afterward, with at least five lawmakers switching their initial votes since they were cast Monday. The changes have no impact on the bill’s passage.

For Assemblyman Brian Bergen, a Morris County Republican who opposed the bill, the altered votes are indicative of a broken process, one that allows members to vote one way in case a bill is in jeopardy, then change their votes once they know the bill’s approval is not in doubt.

“There’s no doubt it’s anything other than that,” he said. “The speaker knew he needed Republican votes to get it over, but he didn’t know how many he was going to get, so it was an ever-changing thing.”

Assemblywoman Barbara McCann Stamato (D-Hudson) initially did not vote, but changed her vote to no. The votes from Assemblyman David Bailey Jr. (D-Salem) and Assemblywoman Rosy Bagolie (D-Essex) were initially recorded as yes, then no. In the upper chamber, Atlantic County Republican Sen. Vince Polistina’s no vote was switched to “not voting,” and Sen. John McKeon (D-Essex), who initially did not vote, changed his vote to no.

McKeon said he went to Trenton Monday planning to vote against the OPRA bill, but missed the vote “by coincidence,” he said. During a recess in the Senate session, McKeon said he misunderstood that people would be meeting in the caucus room, which led him to be off the floor when the session resumed.

“You can ask the Senate president, because he was none too pleased when I told him I wasn’t voting for it earlier in the day,” McKeon told the New Jersey Monitor. “I put my no vote in immediately.”

None of the other lawmakers responded to requests for comment to clarify why their votes were changed. McCann Stamato told the Hudson County View her initial vote was the result of a clerical error, and Bagolie said on social media that the board that tallies lawmakers’ votes “did not reflect my correct vote.”

The bill advanced to the governor’s desk with a final vote of 21-10 in the Senate and 42-28 in the Assembly (that total was 44-25 in the immediate aftermath of the vote). Bills need 21 votes to pass the Senate and 41 in the Assembly.

The measure would implement changes to the state’s public records law that critics say will make it more difficult to obtain government documents. Supporters have said the law, which has barely changed in two decades, needs to be updated.

To get a vote that was cast changed, lawmakers have to fill out a form requesting the chamber’s leader approve the switch. Bergen said it happens periodically when someone’s in the bathroom during the vote, hits the wrong “yes” or “no” button by accident, or the button malfunctions and doesn’t register the vote.

“It’s finicky, but there’s no clerical stuff involved. You see it light up. The color changes and you can see your name on the board. Like anything, sometimes it just doesn’t work, but this is a funny part of this whole thing,” he said.

Maura Collinsgru, director of policy and advocacy at New Jersey Citizen Action, said the post-vote changes reflect the chaotic, fast-tracked process the bill underwent. Collinsgru’s group opposes the bill.

“I think many members were conflicted around this, and I think that showed in the way the vote unfolded. It could be a lot of reasons for their conflict, but clearly the chaos is part of it,” she said.

Collinsgru added that, for some voters, the final vote is what matters.

“They don’t care if it happened five minutes after the vote or an hour after they voted. If they voted no, they got the message that we didn’t want this, and I think voters will be appreciative of the fact that their representatives said no because there’s still a lot who said no,” she said.

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