New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday that the state will adopt mail-in voting for the upcoming November general election.
“It doesn’t matter what party you’re in — everybody gets a ballot,” the Democratic governor said during an interview on CNN.
This is the first time the state will be holding a general election that is expected to be mostly by vote-by-mail.
Murphy explained that the state’s largely vote-by-mail primary held last month was “a success,” so the state will do the same when New Jersey voters cast their ballot for president.
For the July 7 primary — which was pushed back from June due to the coronavirus crisis — the state conducted a “hybrid model” where ballots were mailed to residents in the state.
In addition, in-person voting at 50 percent capacity was held in each county.
“We’re going to extend that model into the general election in November,” Murphy said, noting, “It was a success — not perfect, but overwhelmingly a success.”
Murphy added, “We learned some lessons. Most importantly, we’re going to have more presence of secure drop boxes — make sure there is that physical in-voting capacity.”
The governor said New Jersey residents will all be mailed a ballot and they will decide whether to cast their votes by mail.
“And if you do vote in person, you’ll have to do provisional voting because the folks won’t necessarily know at the voting location whether or not you actually mailed a ballot in,” Murphy said.
Several states have already adopted mail-in voting as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
President Trump has repeatedly spoken out by against voting by mail, claiming that the practice allows for rampant fraud, and warned that allowing for mail-in voting will result in a “rigged election.”
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