Councilwoman Cindy Matute-Brown
MADISON, NJ — ATNJ Education Fund, a leader in vote-by-mail education and election infrastructure advancement in New Jersey, recently announced the election of West Orange Township Council President Cindy Matute-Brown to its board of trustees.
Founded in 2018, ATNJEF is focused on providing voter education and expanding access to New Jerseyans who have difficulty voting on Election Day, such as individuals without transportation; with accessibility needs; and who cannot take off work to vote. For more information, visit www.votebymailNJ.org.
Bringing on Matute-Brown aligns with ATNJEF’s mission to educate to increase voter participation. When preliminary data using the 2010 census showed there was a positive correlation between mail-in ballot rejections for Spanish-speaking households, ATNJEF worked to translate all voting information and graphics into Spanish. Matute-Brown, whose family is from Ecuador, is fully fluent in Spanish and appreciates the mission of ATNJEF to reduce this inequity. Serving as the associate director for the New Jersey Education Association’s Human and Civil Rights, Equity and Governance Division, Matute-Brown is also currently in her first term as West Orange Township Council president.
“I am honored to be joining the board of trustees to help the organization in its mission to increase voter participation,” Matute-Brown said. “The threat to our democracy is great and, with two statewide elections every year, New Jersey voters do not get a year off. We cannot be complacent. It is especially important for households where English is not the primary language. We will start with Spanish speakers and my fluency will be an asset. … I think this is part of my patriotic duty: to serve New Jersey by educating the voters.”
Matute-Brown joins a majority-women and person-of-color board led by an AAPI refugee: ATNJEF founder and Executive Director Uyen Khuong, who emigrated from Vietnam as a child. Also on the board are Ahmed Al-Shehab, co-founder of CAIR NJ and treasurer on the CAIR National board of directors; Samantha Bobila, a fundraising and communications executive for a sexual and reproductive health care organization; and Scott Salmon, counsel at Jardim, Meisner & Susser P.C., specializing in employment law, election law and governmental representation.
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