On Tuesday, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit against New Jersey after Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an executive order requesting every voter in the state to obtain a mail-in ballot and to be allowed to vote in-person if they choose, as a safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic.
What We Know:
- President Donald J. Trump, the Republican National Committee, and the New Jersey Republican State Committee brought the lawsuit asking the court to overturn Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order initiating new rules aiming to give voters the option of avoiding voting in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Trump himself has frequently said that increasing mail-in voting options will result in fraud. There is no general voter fraud in US elections, and unbiased experts say neither party automatically benefits when states extend access to mail-in voting.
- President Donald Trump has made allegations about rigged elections but never backed those theories with facts. As stated by the Brennan Center for Justice, voter fraud has proved exceedingly rare. In 2017, the risk of ballot fraud ranked at 0.00004% to 0.0009% based on studies of past elections.
- Since the pandemic, voting by mail is becoming a better option since many voters would prefer not to wait in long lines at voting stations. New Jersey will be the ninth state, along with Washington, DC, to mail all registered voters ballots for the November election.
- Murphy stated last week all 6.3 million of the state’s registered voters would obtain a mail-in ballot to vote on Nov. 3rd. Several polling stations will still be open for residents who want to place their ballots in person.
- On Sunday, the governor said that his administration would prolong the deadline for mail-in votes to be counted, provided they are marked by Election Day.
- In Murphy’s executive order, every voter will have the right to either return their ballot through a secure dropbox or turn in their ballot at a polling location on Election Day. Murphy sounded determined to keep the mail-in options from being taken away by the Trump administration lawsuit.
The state is also achieving a new online voter registration system, expected to launch Sept. 4th, where New Jersey residents will have the chance to register to vote.
