New Jersey voters overwhelmingly disapprove of a push by state lawmakers to overhaul the state’s laws concerning public access to government records, according to a new poll released Friday.
The Fairleigh Dickinson University survey found four out of five voters opposed the legislation, which supporters say is necessary to “modernize” the state Open Public Records Act, or OPRA, while opponents argue it would curtail the public’s right to know.
“It’s rare to see any bill attract this much opposition,” Dan Cassino, a professor who directed the poll, said in a statement. “Republicans and Democrats, young and old, Black, Hispanic and white: nobody thinks this is a good idea.”
Legislative leaders in Trenton were moving quickly last month to advance a measure (S2930) that would overhaul OPRA for the first time in more than two decades, but they put the brakes on the effort amid backlash from government watchdogs and activists.
The new poll, carried out by Princeton-based Braun Research, surveyed 809 registered voters in the state, asking whether New Jersey should “limit access to public records, or keep the system as it is.”
It found 14% supported the proposed changes while 81% were opposed.
Spokespeople for Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Union, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, did not immediately return requests for comment on the findings.
The bill’s sponsors, including Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Bergen, say the $8 million measure would bring New Jersey’s records laws into the digital age by better protecting residents’ personal information, putting more records online and reining in commercial “data brokers” who file voluminous requests with state and local governments.
Open government advocates saw the move as a thinly veiled effort to remove the teeth from OPRA, a 2002 law that allows the public to request a wide array of government records, from contracts and emails to police body camera footage and payroll data.
Hearings in Trenton drew opposition from an array of good government groups and watchdogs, including the state comptroller and the League of Women Voters.
Assemblyman Joe Danielsen, D-Middlesex, the measure’s main sponsor in the lower house, accused the news media of misrepresenting the proposed changes, saying many of its provisions were aimed at “improving access to documents.”
“Supporters of the OPRA overhaul say that if the public knew what was really in the bill, they’d feel differently about it,” Cassino, the poll director, said.
“These numbers show that if that’s true, they’re going to have to do a lot of explaining in order to get the public on their side.”
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S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X.
