Sanders Chairs Call for Restoring 10 VBM Messenger Limit and Ensuring That VBM Design is Publicly Available for Inspection.

“We, the Chairs of the Bernie Sanders campaign want to publicly thank Governor Murphy for his commitment to public safety during the Coronavirus health emergency by mandating that every primary voter receive a Vote by Mail ballot.  This action will undoubtedly limit the spread of this deadly virus,” declared Larry Hamm, Patricia Campos Medina and Barry Brendel, Chairs of New Jersey for Bernie 2020.

We, further, commend the Governor for ensuring that all ballots are pre-paid postage, ensuring that lack of a postage stamp and/or the ability to go out and get one is not an impediment to voting. Lack of postage is a bigger deterrent to voting than most people would realize.  We thank the Governor for his forethought on this matter,” the Chairs continued.

“We also understand the Governor recommends one polling place per town. We agree this is a reasonable accommodation under the current circumstances. However, in larger cities, a few more voting places might be appropriate. Such decisions should be made in consultation with local officials and voting rights advocates,” stated the Chairs.

“We call on the Governor to enact two more steps to encourage participation. First the Governor should restore the 10 ballot messenger limit that was the law for most of the time there have been Vote by Mail/Absentee ballots. We are supposed to be encouraging voter participation and this will do so.  There is nothing inherently different between the first and third ballot and the fourth through tenth. Ten is not an excessive amount.

Second, the Governor should ensure that the design of the Vote by Mail ballot is available for easy public inspection, perhaps to be put on line as early as Tuesday.” The Chairs concluded.