New Jersey residents will be permitted to vote early and in person at designated polling sites if legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce is swiftly enacted into law.

DeCroce’s legislation will permit voters to cast their ballots for candidates in the November election starting 14 days before the General Election. The legislation states that each county board of elections shall designate the building in each municipality in which the office of the municipal clerk is located as the site for early voting to occur.

To accommodate municipalities with large populations, DeCroce’s legislation empowers the county election boards to designate an additional five public locations as early voting sites if the number of registered voters in the county is at least 150,000 but less than 300,000, and shall designate an additional seven public locations as early voting sites if the number of registered voters in the county is 300,000 or more.

DeCroce said the legislation is vital to the integrity of the November election outcomes because it will lessen the reliance on mail-in voting, which she described as “a deeply flawed and a very corruptible process.”

“To rely on millions of mail-in ballots to decide the November elections is simply courting electoral catastrophe,” said DeCroce. “If the legislature and governor truly want to protect the integrity of the General Election it is imperative to have as many people as possible voting via traditional voting machines.”

DeCroce said the early in-person voting will thin out lines at polling places for those concerned about catching the corona virus and help ensure that votes are counted properly.

“No one is forced to go to a polling station this year, but there are many people who have doubts about the integrity of the mail-in voting system and they want to vote the same way they have doing for years – at a polling booth,” said DeCroce.

DeCroce said reliance on mail-in balloting presents a greater opportunity for disenfranchisement of voters than using traditional voting machines.

PATERSON’S ELECTION DO-OVER

The assemblywoman cited the recently decided case involving voter fraud in Paterson’s all mail-in, non-partisan city council election in May. A superior court judge last week called for an election do-over because of the corruption of the balloting process, which caused the state attorney general to bring charges of election fraud against four people involved in the May election.

The judge found that nearly 25 percent of ballots cast in Paterson’s May election were rejected and that, across the state, nearly 10 percent of mail- in ballots cast in 31 municipalities in May were disqualified.

“The number of rejected mail-in ballots should be alarming to anyone who truly cares about a fair and honest election, “said DeCroce. “If the same pattern emerges in the General Election, New Jersey could end up disqualifying more than 400,000 ballots cast by mail. That is not acceptable.”

BRENNAN CENTER SUPPORTS EARLY VOTING

The left leaning Brennan Center For Justice, in a report on elections during the Covid-19 pandemic, recommended that voting Jurisdictions “should expand early voting options to reduce lines and administrative stress on Election Day.”

The Brennan Center noted that only a handful of states that have all-mail elections and it took many years to get there. “As we saw in the Iowa caucus, putting too much strain on an entirely new system is sure to result in breakdowns and failures,” says the Center – which also noted that the added cost or running a national all mail-in system could run as high as $1.4 billion, while bolstering the safety of existing in-person voting would cost just $271 million.

The Center added there are millions of Americans who will not be able to cast a private and independent vote by mail and that: “There is evidence that the absence of in-person voting options could disproportionately and negatively impact Black, Latino, and young voters. We must maintain the safety-valve of in person voting, but in a way that reduces density and ensures health.”

County election boards, said DeCroce, were overwhelmed by the mail-in ballots in the July Primary Election. With millions more ballots cast in the General Election (close to 4 million ballots could be cast in NJ) the assemblywoman predicts more chaos during the ballot count, which could go on for weeks before a winner is declared.

“The over-reliance on mail in ballots to decide the very important November election would put New Jersey and the United States in a category of electoral disarray on par with Third World countries,” said DeCroce.