Monmouth County Republican Party Sues NJ Over Mail-In Voting

The Monmouth County Republican party has now filed a lawsuit against Gov. Phil Murphy's administration over his mandate that the upcoming November election be nearly entirely vote-by-mail.

The lawsuit was filed last Thursday by Jason Sena of the Freehold law firm Cutolo Barros. It was filed in Monmouth County Superior court, and names Tahesha Way, New Jersey's Secretary of State, as a defendant. The Secretary of State is New Jersey’s top election official, and it is Way's job to oversee the state's election process.

"Every election conducted thus far in 2020 using this hastily-concocted procedure has resulted in large-scale voter disenfranchisement and the receipt of illegal votes," wrote Sena, pointing to the invalidated election in Paterson as one of his examples. "During an August 13, 2020 interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, 'there is no reason why we can’t vote in person' so long as polling places follow appropriate social distancing and sanitary measures."

The governor's press team said they will not be commenting on the lawsuit, which you can read here. News of the lawsuit was first reported in More Monmouth Musings.

This lawsuit comes after President Trump's re-election camp similarly sued Murphy in August, arguing that ordering New Jersey to vote by mail violates the U.S. Constitution. The head of the Monmouth County Republican Party is Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden, said to be eyeing his own run for governor.

How mail-in voting will work: Starting this week, ballots will be mailed to all active registered voters in New Jersey; they should be received by no later than next Monday, October 5. Limited polling places will be open on Election Day, Nov. 3, but voting machines will only be open to disabled voters. If you don't have a proven disability, you can only vote at the polls via paper provisional ball on Nov. 3. Additionally, paper provisional ballots will be counted by each county's Board of Elections only after all mail-in ballots are counted.

Many towns, including Middletown, are installing ballot drop boxes where you can drop your mail-in ballot. Some towns are promising the boxes will be monitored by local police so they will not be tampered with.

However, Sena argues "The Secretary of State and Board of Elections have failed to address the following glaring issues: the general security of ballot drop boxes, including how long video surveillance footage will be maintained and who will pay for it; the collection and storage of ballots from drop boxes" and also "how the Board of Elections intends to verify that ballots deposited in a drop box were not deposited by a voter that already machine voted."

Sena also wants to know what the "'appropriate standards' are for determining whether a person claiming to be disabled has the right to machine vote."

He said the Monmouth County Republican Party has asked all of this to the state Board of Elections but received no formal response.

In the lawsuit, the Monmouth County Republican Party also wants a judge to throw out any mail-in ballot that is postmarked after election day.

In his lawsuit, Sena cited several recent problems that occurred with mail-in voting:

• The May 12, 2020 municipal election in the city of Paterson, where the New Jersey Attorney General indicted four individuals on charges of voter fraud, including a City Councilman and Councilman-elect. They are accused of a ballot-harvesting scheme where they collected vote-by-mail ballots from registered voters and returned those ballots to the Board of Elections for canvassing. A Superior Court judge invalidated the election entirely, ruling that it was so rife with fraud that it was “not a was not the fair, free and full expression of the intent of the voters.”
• After the statewide July primary, more than 40,000 ballots were rejected throughout New Jersey — eight times as many rejected ballots as the 2016 primary election. "The unprecedented tidal wave of vote-by-mail ballots received by County Board of Elections resulted in significant delays in certification of the election results," said Sena. As a result, the Secretary of State was unable to certify the results of the July 2020 primary for more than one month after the election actually occurred.
• On September 15, 2020, the Associated Press reported that the Sussex County Board of Elections discovered 1,666 unopened vote-by-mail ballots in a “mislabeled bin” found in a “secure area” at the county election office. Those 1,666 votes were not officially counted, though the Sussex County Board of Elections claims that these votes “did not change the outcome of any races.”

Related: County Installs 2 Ballot Drop Boxes In Middletown

If you live in Monmouth County, here is a ballot drop box location near you (not every town has a drop box): https://www.monmouthcountyvote...