Dear editor,

We have witnessed utter chaos throughout this nation, and particularly in New Jersey as a result of the Novel Coronavirus COVID-19. With the need for social distancing and required closure of all non essential businesses, offices and the like, I think it’s only fitting that the upcoming municipal elections in May are postponed.

The vote-by-mail process, which is complex in many ways, has been the center of allegations of voter fraud. With that said, how will this process be handled? Especially, in light of the fact that most people aren’t even comfortable opening their door to talk much less receive a paper from anyone.

And let’s honest, are we concerned about elections right now? People have lost their jobs. As a community we don’t know how long this will last.

Tensions are growing because most of our lives and schedules were upended by COVID-19. Who is going to recheck VBM’s that are challenged? Who will monitor those responsible for rechecking challenged VBM’s?

To take away the right of the public to vote at the voting booth is bad enough. But to further exasperate an already enflamed climate by reducing the process to only vote-by-mail is insulting. Most people aren’t fully educated on the process as they have been used to entering a voting booth to vote during elections.

This move will without a doubt change the narrative of how elections are won in this city and possibly the county and state as well. Let’s rethink this and come up with a better solution to conduct a fair and open election.

Let’s not disenfranchise any voter from being able to cast a vote. We can’t leave those who don’t know the VBM system out in the cold. We can’t just throw them away because they want to vote at the polls instead by mail.

I strongly believe that this move could potently open the floodgates to every form of voter fraud possible. Let’s be smart about this and postpone the elections so that those who would like to vote in person at the polls can do so.

Sincerely,

Corey L. Teague