State Sen. Kristin Corrado called for Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration to release additional information about roughly 6,500 incorrectly postmarked ballots cast in the state’s July primaries Tuesday.
“I am unsure which is more troubling — the fact that this egregious mistake occurred or that the Governor, once again, claims to be in the dark about such important matters,” she said in a letter to Secretary of State Tahesha Way. “The people of New Jersey deserve to know who in the administration was notified and when. Were these votes counted? If not, did 6,535 voters unknowingly have their voices ignored?”
In a court filing submitted Friday, Division of Elections Director Bob Giles said the U.S. Postal Service informed him of 6,535 mail-in ballots that were sent by voters on or before July 7 but were postmarked for July 8, a day after the primary election.
At Monday’s COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Phil Murphy said he first learned of those ballots some hours earlier, though sources told the New Jersey Globe Giles looped in the governor’s office, the office of the attorney general and county election officials shortly after receiving the July 9 USPS email.
“The recent unveiling of yet another vote-by-mail issue gives me pause,” Corrado said in a statement. “More than 6,500 ballots were incorrectly postmarked during New Jersey’s primary election, which nobody can seem to explain. Whether it’s a result of human error or blatant malfeasance, the integrity of our upcoming general election is at stake through concerning situations like this.”
New Jersey statute allows late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted for six days after polls close so long as they were postmarked by election day. (The grace period for the general election is seven days, pursuant to an executive order issued by Murphy.)
And while New Jersey officials have moved to allow mail-in ballots lacking any postmark to be counted if they reach election officials within 48 hours of polls closing, there’s no provision for counting incorrectly postmarked ballots.
Still, at least some of incorrectly postmarked ballots cast in the primary were counted.