As Jack Ciattarelli chatted with voters throughout the campaign, a question invariably arose.

“How do we know the system isn’t rigged?”

We’re paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of it. Clearly, Donald Trump’s cries of “fraud” after losing the 2020 election still resonate with many Republicans.

Ciattarelli always answered that question with a good dose of common sense.

You need not worry about that, he would say.

He then explained the election system in New Jersey.

There are 21 county boards of election and every one has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, he would say. Moreover, he trusted the integrity of those counting and he said voters should as well.

But how about the dreaded Dominion voting machines?

Ciattarelli explained that those machines were used in Ocean County last year and that Trump won the county big time – don’t worry about the machines.

Now, Ciattarelli’s comments are being put to the test.

He is now about 40,000 votes behind Phil Murphy after leading the race early Wednesday morning. Murphy’s lead is incrementally growing as more votes are counted.

“Jack’s” campaign sent out a statement last night saying it’s “irresponsible” for media outlets to call the race for Murphy with votes still to be counted.

Needless to say, those commenting on various GOP social media sites are going a bit further than that.

The Democrats are cheating – again. Jack is being robbed. This is an outrage. We need to do something.

That’s the message from the party faithful.

Those who believe everything is rigged won’t be convinced by logic, but the logic is still there.

More votes – generally mail-in ballots – are being counted. That’s all.

Last year, because of a different set of circumstances, the late counting of mail-in ballots benefited Republicans.

Tom Kean Jr. came very close to beating Tom Malinowski in CD-7 because of the late counting. Moreover, Republicans in Morris County were behind on election night and in danger of losing legislative and county seats until the continued counting turned things around.

There is nothing scandalous about counting every vote.

It is unfortunate that “thanks” to Trump, every time a Republican loses an election, chicanery just has to be afoot.

What Ciattarelli can do is remember what he said during the campaign and publicly accept the results.

Yes, he can do that.

But he seems to be going in the opposite direction.

His campaign just sent out a solicitation seeking money.

“This race is far from over,” it begins.

“Our team is making sure every legal vote is counted and the will of the people is heard loud and clear. But we need your help.”