Another State Shifts to a Mail Election

New Jersey is the latest
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 15, 2020 8:10 AM CDT
New Jersey Shifts to a Mail Election
Voters in New Jersey can return their mail ballots in drop boxes likes this one in Mount Laurel.   (Joe Lamberti/Camden Courier-Post via AP)

New Jersey will move to a nearly all-mail election this November following the model the state used in its July primary, per the AP. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said Friday that all registered voters will get a ballot beginning Oct. 5 along with a prepaid return envelope. The state, which has about 6.2 million registered voters, also will have a select number of in-person voting locations, per NJ.com. Though he didn't mention President Trump by name, Murphy alluded to the president's comments about starving the US Postal Service of cash to make it harder to process millions of mailed ballots. The postal service, the governor said, was “being turned into a political football” by people who don't believe in getting people to turn out to vote.

To address concerns over the service's reliability, Murphy said voters will have several options to return their ballots: They can mail them, as long as they're postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3, or take them to at least 10 official drop boxes throughout each county. And there will be a new option for the fall: Voters can bring their mail-in ballots in person to a polling place and hand deliver it to a poll worker. Ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will be accepted up to a week later, Murphy said. At least eight other states also plan to mail ballots to voters this year, reports the New York Times. (The USPS has warned most of the states that this year's surge in mail voting is likely to cause major headaches with vote counts.)

(More mail voting stories.)

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