PRESS RELEASE: Ambrosino: The Voting Booth Guarantees Your Ballot Is Secret

Camden County GOP Chair Rich Ambrosino offered a statement of support for a lawsuit filed against Governor Phil Murphy by NJGOP, the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s re-election committee. His press release on the matter follows:

Camden County Republican Chairman Rich Ambrosino said today that he was thrilled NJGOP joined the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign in suing Phil Murphy to overturn his executive order requiring more than 6 million vote-by-mail ballots to be mailed to New Jersey voters.

“The secret ballot is essential to our democracy and the privacy of the voting booth is the one thing that guarantees that secrecy,” Rich Ambrosino said. “NJGOP is right to join President Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee in suing to overturn Governor Murphy’s scheme to mail over 6 million vote-by-mail ballots to New Jersey’s voters.”

“Throughout this pandemic the Governor has claimed science and data guide his decisions, but science and data have nothing to do with his decision to mail ballots to voters.” Ambrosino continued, “You cannot allow folks to march in protests and then say the science and data suggest the same folks who march in protests would not be safe standing in line to vote.”

Ambrosino added, “If Murphy were truly concerned with using data to guide his decision on voting he could have called congressional candidate Claire Gustafson. Her campaign commissioned a poll that ran July 26 – 30. She shared the data with us and the poll found that the majority of CD1 voters want to vote in person at a polling place. That’s real data! It’s time for Governor Murphy to cut the crap and admit that data had nothing to do with his VBM decision.”

“I’m not a lawyer and have no idea how a court will rule on this lawsuit, but I am hopeful New Jersey’s voters realize it is President Trump and the Republican Party standing up for voters to be guaranteed the right to vote in the privacy of the voting booth,” Ambrosino said.

Vote-by-Mail – Deal With It – Whatever You Do, Don’t Whine, Vote

I haven’t blogged in what feels like forever because, frankly, I haven’t felt like it. It’s thankless, time consuming and the only people who care are the internet trolls.

So, here’s something for the trolls!

Governor Phil Murphy has issued Executive Order 177 “to Protect Public Health by Mailing Every Active Registered Voter a VBM Ballot Ahead of the General Election.”

How I feel about this executive order does not matter. How you feel about this executive order does not matter. How any of us feels about vote-by-mail does not matter. Murphy has issued the order and now we must deal with it.

Murphy is not going to change his mind. It doesn’t matter that earlier today Gloucester County GOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante offered a commonsense solution that would allow folks to vote on machines at polling places.

Like it or not, we have to deal with an election conducted primarily through vote-by-mail.

Guess what! We had to deal with it anyway, albeit to a lesser extent. Statewide, the percentage of voters to cast ballots via mail has increased year after year to 16.7% in 2019, up from 2.6% in the 2003 general election (see here).

I’ve been filling out a vote-by-mail ballot every general election since 2016, but I never mail my ballot and always drive it to the Board of Elections myself.

I haven’t voted by mail because I like it, I’ve voted by mail because I am a fan of early voting. I always voted early back in New Mexico and since moving back to Jersey decided to look at VBM as a form of early voting.

Those of you who listen to the radio show have heard me say repeatedly that we no longer have “Election Day,” but instead have “Election Season.”

To that point, even if Governor Murphy had not issued Executive Order 177, VBM ballots were scheduled to commence mailing on September 19 by statute.

Granted, far fewer voters would be receiving VBM ballots without the executive order, but a sizeable number of voters would still be getting ballots and any campaign that ignored that fact was destined to lose.

Now, even with the executive order, there is nothing that says one cannot still go vote at a polling place. It may not be the polling place one usually goes to given the fact that each municipality is to have at least one polling place open and counties are required to have half as many as normal.

The difference is if you choose to cast your ballot at a polling place it will be by provisional ballot. And, before you start saying something stupid, provisional ballots are counted. They are counted last to make sure one hasn’t already voted by another method, in this case by mail, first.

Voting by provisional ballot means you will not be voting on the machine. You will be voting on paper.

Voting on paper is not a bad thing. That’s how most of the states in the nation do it. I haven’t voted on a machine since 2009, after that election I moved to New Mexico and I voted on paper at the polls in that state every year. The difference – in NM I put my ballot in the scanner at the polling place, in New Jersey, whether provisional or VBM your ballot gets put in the scanner at your county’s Board of Elections by an election worker. There are commissioners at the Board of Elections, equal in number, from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Because provisional ballots are counted last, if you decide to go to the polls and vote, do not complain if it takes a month to get final election results. Do not expect the results that come in on election night to hold, they may change based on the number of people who decide to go to the polls and vote on paper.

So, rather than whine and cry that thanks to the Governor’s executive order many, many more folks are going to vote-by-mail, let’s deal with it and do things to try and win.

Republican committee people do what you were elected to do and contact your voters in your district. Encourage them to fill out their VBM ballot and return it. If they need help, go help them, just remember to sign as an assistor if you actually assist.

Host a voting party. Invite your friends over. Have them bring their ballots. Make an evening out of it. Everyone can vote together. Turn it into a drinking game. Vote for President Donald Trump, do a shot, then vote for Rik Mehta for U.S. Senate, do a shot. Vote for your Republican candidate for Congress, do a shot, all the way down the ballot to the municipal level. Just make sure you have a designated driver at the party.

Hate the way the system is? Change it. The only way to change it is to change who holds office. The only way to change who holds office is to vote under the system that is in place. Electing a new Senator, new Representatives, new Freeholders and municipal officeholders means new people with a new bully pulpit to change things.

Whatever you do – vote – by mail or by provisional ballot, but vote. Don’t sit behind your computer posting crap on Twitter and Facebook about how unfair life is. That won’t change anything and is a sure way to lose.

PRESS RELEASE: GCGOP Chairwoman Vigilante Calls On Governor To Rescind Executive Order 177

Gloucester County GOP Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante, by way of press release, has offered Governor Phil Murphy a plan that is better than a primarily vote-by-mail election. Frankly, it is nice to see a Republican leader offering a solution rather than just complaining. Vigilante’s press release follows:

Gloucester County Republican Chairwoman Jacci Vigilante called on Governor Phil Murphy to rescind Executive Order 177, pause his plan for a general election conducted primarily by vote-by-mail and allow the state legislature to fast-track an early voting bill that will give voters the opportunity to vote on machines at polling places.

“While not perfect a fast-tracked early voting bill is a solid compromise and a solution that is better than vote-by-mail,” Jacci Vigilante said. “The Democrats, including Senate President Steve Sweeney, have been pushing early voting for years. Many voters want to vote on machines and not fill in ovals on a piece of paper. Early voting on machines gives everyone a little bit of what they want.”

“Less than three weeks ago state Senator Brian Stack said he planned on introducing an early voting bill.” Vigilante explained, “Stack said that he thought if they got the bill in before September 1st it could work.”

Vigilante added, “We know bills move fast when they want them to. Remember how fast they moved the bill to allow Cooper Hospital to gain control of both paramedic service and ambulance service in Camden? That bill moved faster than Senator Cory Booker moves toward a TV camera!”

“Early voting, even with a reduced number of polling places, solves the problem of voter safety during the pandemic. Because the election would be spread out over a period of about 15 days the concern of long lines at polling places goes away, social distancing can easily be practiced. Voters who don’t want to fill in ovals on a piece of paper still get to vote on a machine and will likely stand in a line shorter than the one at the local Shop Rite.” Vigilante said, “If the Governor’s true concern is voter safety he will sit down with legislative leadership and get to work on a solid general election plan that makes everybody a little bit happy.”