REPORT: New Jersey NAACP Leader Calls for Redo of Vote by Mail Election After Massive Irregularities

President Trump is proven right, yet again, this time over mail in ballots. Democrat-run Paterson, New Jersey’s city council elections this month was marred by massive irregularities including about 3,200 ballots not counted out of nearly 17,000 cast, prompting the local NAACP to call for a redo of the election, according to a report by WNBC-TV published Thursday.
Part of the problem: Mail in ballots delivered unsecured to apartment buildings:
Excerpt:
A Paterson NAACP leader said the recent city council vote-by-mail election was allegedly so flawed that the results should be thrown out and a new election ordered.
“Invalidate the election. Let’s do it again,” said Rev. Kenneth Clayton said amid reports more that 20 percent of all ballots were disqualified, some in connection with voter fraud allegations…
…Rev. Clayton said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will soon be filing a written complaint to Gov. Phil Murphy — who ordered the vote-by-mail only election — and State Attorney General Grubir Grewal.
Paterson activist Ernest Rucker said his experience this election is an example of the kind of corruption that allegedly took place. Rucker said he never received a ballot but that election records show someone mailed in a ballot in his name…
…Murphy ordered elections vote-by-mail in an attempt to keep people safe during the coronavirus crisis. In the upcoming primary, the governor will allow one in-person voting site per town.
In addition to apparent problems with the vote count in Paterson, NBC New York has shown video of ballots left out in building lobbies, of one voter handling many ballots, and reported on postal workers reporting finding hundreds of ballots at a time stuffed in mailboxes in Paterson – and even in a neighboring town, Haledon…
…The results, if you want to call them that, speak for themselves. As Joe Malinconico of Paterson Press reported, the Passaic County Board of Elections last Friday released a report that showed about 3,200 of the 16,747 mail-in votes submitted in the Paterson election were rejected and not counted in the results.
County officials have said that more than 800 of those votes came under scrutiny for alleged improper bundling of mail-in ballots. But officials have not yet provided a detailed breakdown on why all 3,200 were disqualified…
…If the governor or anyone on his staff had bothered to take a closer look at Paterson’s recent voting history before declaring a total “mail-in’ balloting system for the beleaguered city, they would have found that voting irregularities have been common for at least the past decade, and that they often have concerned shenanigans involving mail-in or absentee balloting.
This is particularly true of the 2nd Ward, where the Election Day outcome is hardly ever the final outcome, and has been over the last few cycles always involved a recount or at least the suggestion of voter fraud. Indeed, four years ago, the current 2nd Ward incumbent, Shaheen Khalique and Akhtaruzzaman engaged in a bitter, lengthy court battle before Khalique was declared the winner.
The counting of mail-in votes was extended by a state judge, reported TapIntoPaterson:
The long-awaited outcome of Paterson’s vote-by-mail election could be known by Tuesday evening. That’s the deadline given to the Passaic County Board of Elections under a 7-day extension granted by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Joseph Portelli so workers had more time to finish its count.
In his order, Portelli said “considerable space constraints due to mandatory social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic,” coupled with an influx of ballots received on or after May 8 left the board unable to complete its count on Election Day.
On Monday afternoon a Passaic County official familiar with the process said that the county elections board was “working hard to count all ballots tomorrow,” but if “more time is necessary, then a judge’s order would be necessary.”
As of May 14 – the last day for ballots to be postmarked and returned to the county – 16,747 voters have sent in their completed ballots, TAPinto Paterson learned.
While the Board of Elections has typically had between 30 to 40 workers processing and counting ballots, social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 public health crisis has decreased that number to a third of what it usually us, one of the factors in a slower count….
Video reports by WNBC:
About three thousand ballots not counted:
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