TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Democrats might not want voter ID, but New Jersey voters overwhelmingly do.
A new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Tuesday finds that 82% of Garden State residents support requiring photo identification to vote in person, including 63% who strongly support the requirement.
Only 17% oppose it.
The results are similarly lopsided when it comes to citizenship verification: 71% support requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration, compared to just 25% who oppose the idea.
The findings arrive amid New Jersey’s ongoing Motor Vehicle Commission voter registration scandal, which began with the disclosure that approximately 6,600 individuals who indicated they were noncitizens nevertheless ended up registered to vote.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration subsequently disclosed another roughly 1,100 registration records requiring correction or review, although officials said those additional issues did not involve noncitizens.
The Rutgers poll was conducted before that latest announcement.
Perhaps most interestingly, voter ID enjoys support across party lines.
Among Republicans, a whopping 95% strongly support requiring identification to vote. So do 64% of independents and 42% of Democrats. Including those who somewhat support the requirement, even 66% of Democrats favor voter ID.
Proof of citizenship also attracts majority support among Democrats (52%) and independents (75%).
Meanwhile, confidence in New Jersey’s election machinery is considerably less overwhelming.
Only 36% of residents are very confident that exclusively eligible voters will cast ballots this November. Just 29% are very confident that mail-in ballots will be counted accurately.
Republicans are particularly skeptical: only 12% are very confident that only eligible voters will participate, compared with 59% of Democrats.
“The support is settled. The confidence is not,” explained Rutgers-Eagleton polling director Ashley Koning.
The political takeaway?
After years of Democrats treating voter identification proposals as controversial, the latest numbers suggest the public is considerably more receptive to election security requirements than Trenton’s political establishment.
And with the MVC scandal still unfolding, Republican lawmakers pushing voter ID and citizenship verification now have some powerful polling ammunition.
The Rutgers-Eagleton survey interviewed 1,004 New Jersey adults between September 24 and 27, with a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.
