When New Jersey’s elections faced a rampant fraud and negligence due to mail-in ballots, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy “liked what he saw” and continued to push for this easily abusable voting system.
In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Murphy discussed his decision to use predominately mail-in ballots for the 2020 presidential election this November. The approximately 6.2 million active voters in the state will all be sent ballots in the mail, as of an executive order Murphy signed Friday. He cited COVID fears as his reason.
Murphy’s attempted to quell fears of fraud and other problems by saying there have already been elections in the state that used mail-in voting under the pandemic. He named the 2020 presidential primary, without mentioning the fraudulent special election in Paterson. He told Wallace and viewers, “Based on our experience, especially from this primary, the system is going to work for us.”
The aforementioned experience ought not provide the government or the voters any comfort about the security of the voting. The primary faced many issues, with some voters receiving incorrect ballots and others failing to receive a ballot.
Also, 40,845 ballots were reportedly rejected. While that number only makes up 2.7 percent of votes, that is up sizably from 2016, when the primary only saw 0.4 percent rejected. It is also enough to flip may elections. The primary took more than a month to officially certify results, with the Senate Republican primary still contested.
Likewise, a recent special election for city council in Paterson, New Jersey that relied on mail-in voting faced rampant fraud. A startling 19 percent of ballots were disqualified due to the discovery of fraud. Ballots were altered, filled out fraudulently, and stolen. A mailbox was discovered filled to the brim with hundreds of ballots. Four men were arrested and charged with voter fraud.
When asked about the Paterson election, Murphy responded, “I view that as a positive,” because the men who attempted the fraud were caught and indicted. He likewise minimized any problems with the primary, stating that every election has problems and mistakes, regardless of how it is conducted.
Murphy was likewise cagey when pushed on security measures for securing against fraud, merely giving vague assurances that there were checks and balances in place. Hopefully those unstated measures will be stronger than those used in Paterson and the 2020 primary.
Along with the risk of election tampering, there is a very serious risk that the Postal Service will not be able to handle the distribution of ballots. The U.S. Postal Service cannot guarantee delivery of mail-in ballots to all 6.2 million New Jersey voters, according to a letter to the state government. The letter explained that the requests made by the state and the NJ election laws are “incompatible with the Postal Service’s delivery standards and the recommended timeframe.”
Between the problems with the two attempted elections by mail and the technical problems with the Post Office’s fear of performance, it is abundantly clear that a mail-in general election in New Jersey is a disaster in the making.
