New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy Says General Election Will Be Done Mostly by Mail

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said Friday the general election would be done mostly by mail, following the model used during the state’s July primary.

“The nearly all-mail election in July stemmed from the coronavirus outbreak,” according to News 12 New Jersey.

All voters would get a ballot but it was unclear if people not registered to vote will get an application to register, Murphy told CNN.

He stated:

We’re going to extend that model into the general election in November. Most importantly, we’ve learned some lessons, including we’re going to have more presence of secure drop boxes. Make sure there is that physical, in-voting capacity. And as it relates to mail-in ballots, the good news is in a general election, it doesn’t matter what party you’re in, everybody gets a ballot.

However, voting by mail in the general election could cause vote counting delays, according to the New Jersey Globe.

“Nearly 1.47 million voters participated in the July primary election, about 87% of them through vote-by-mail ballots. It took some counties more than a month to certify the results of that election,” the article read.

Additionally, National Public Radio’s (NPR) recent analysis revealed that at least 65,000 absentee and mail-in ballots were thrown out in primary elections this year because they arrived past deadlines, according to Breitbart News.

The NPR article noted:

An NPR analysis has found that in the primary elections held so far this year, at least 65,000 absentee or mail-in ballots have been rejected because they arrived past the deadline, often through no fault of the voter. [Emphasis added]

While the numbers are relatively small — around 1% in most states — they could prove crucial in a close election, especially one in which many more voters are expected to cast absentee and mail-in ballots to avoid going to the polls during a pandemic. [Emphasis added]

Mail-in voting “has long been rife with inaccuracies, mishaps, and fraud. Since the 2012 presidential election, for instance, nearly 30 million mail-in ballots have gone missing,” the Breitbart News report concluded.