TRENTON — Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells, Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen and other key state officials visited polling places on Election Day, June 3, in an effort to review and enforce accessibility standards.

The inspections were to determine whether the sites complied with state and federal laws that mandate universal polling place accessibility for voters with disabilities.

Covering five polling places in Essex and Union counties, the tour comes as a record 4,952,430 New Jerseyans were registered to vote in the June 3 primary. That number is expected to surpass 5 million by November.

“The need to protect civil rights goes to the very heart of the sacred bond of public service, and nowhere is this more important than in the electoral process,” said Secretary Wells. “The Division of Elections is back with the Department of State, and we will work tirelessly to ensure that polling locations are accessible and available to the voting public.”

“I am pleased that the Secretary of State has made polling place accessibility compliance such a priority since she has taken over oversight of the state Division of Elections,” said Chen.

“We observed noticeable progress in accessibility compliance in each of the sites we visited, although some may require some additional improvements to fully accommodate voters with disabilities,” said Chen. “It is important to ensure that each of the 3,500 polling places in use around the State comply with the accessibility law. That is why we will continue to collaborate with the Division of Elections to ensure that county elections boards meet this statutory mandate.”

Others in attendance on Tuesday included Robert Giles, Director of the New Jersey Division of Elections; Flavio Komuves, Deputy Public Advocate; Dave Millstein, Assistant Deputy Director, ADA, and Administrator of Special Services; and Javier Robles of the Division of Disability Services. At each polling location, state experts explained ADA requirements under law, answered questions from poll workers and demonstrated accessibility functions of electronic voting machines.

“This is an exciting time to be part of Elections and indeed a voter in New Jersey; the degree of excitement is great and the record number of registered voters reflects this fact,” said Division Director Robert Giles. “The people of New Jersey can expect us to meet such challenges with great determination.”

For more information on the Division of Elections, visit www.njelections.org .

For more about the work of the Department of State and the Public Advocate, visit www.state.nj.us/state and www.state.nj.us/publicadvocate.