ATLANTIC CITY - Against the backdrop of the New Jersey Association of Election Officials (NJAEO) conference this week, the federal SAVE Act and the state-proposed John R. Lewis Act dominated discussion and debate.

Casual conversations among experts here at the Resorts Casino revealed a significant depth of resistance to both acts as currently written.

Democrats, of course, detest the SAVE Act, which comes out of the Trump hatchery of Orwellian options for the country and has clerks shaking in their boots up and down the state.

Getting a once over right now in the United States Senate, in every form, the SAVE Act - according to the Brennan Center for Justice - "would require American citizens to show documents like a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Our research shows that more than 21 million Americans lack ready access to those documents. Roughly half of Americans don’t even have a passport."

It would, NJAEO members say, cause chaos and disruption - hallmarks, they add, of President Donald J. Trump's leadership agenda for New Jersey. The trouble is, they note, the countervailing John R. Lewis Empowerment Act, which just moved out of committee in the Democratic-controlled NJ State Assembly, doesn't offer much comfort.

Quite the contrary, in fact.

Democrats and Republicans within the ranks of NJAEO are critical of the state bill, which they argue, in attempting to rectify some of the horrors of SAVE, would make matters worse, not better, especially by opening county clerks to all kinds of liability.

The bill - as presented by the Legislature - "has three main goals: protecting the right of voters to have their ballot cast and counted; ensuring that eligible voters are not impaired in registering to vote; and ensuring voters of race, color, and language-minority groups have equitable access to fully participate in the electoral process in registering to vote and voting. The bill would establish an independent Division of Voting Rights to oversee the implementation and enforcement of the bill’s provisions and State election laws."

But again, the devil's in the details, and NJAEO members have their doubts.

That said, members on both sides of the aisle expressed serious misgivings about the trajectory of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by the Trump Administration and its impact on elections. Scattered conversations revealed worries about militarized American streets and the chilling effect - at best - on voters.

Spied here at the event:

Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi, Middlesex County Clerk Nancy Pinkin, Hudson County Clerk Junior Maldonado, Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, Passaic County Board of Elections Chair John Currie, Somerset County Clerk Steve Peter, Princeton Public Affairs Principal Dale Florio, Passaic County Board of Elections Secretary/Commissioner John Traier (both pictured above), Cumberland County Clerk Celeste Riley, Eileen Kean, principal at Komjathy & Kean, Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, and NJAEO President Beth Thompson, among many others.

Bottom line:

Resisting the tug of war between SAVE and John R. Lewis, players here seemed mostly in agreement with Currie, who told InsiderNJ, "Our New Jersey system is really good. There are so many checks and balances."