Some outlets, including the AP, called the New Jersey governor’s race late yesterday for the incumbent Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, when Phil Murphy’s lead was less than one point with 49.2 to 50%.
But not so fast, says the challenger Jack Ciattarelli calling it “irresponsible.”
‘With the candidates separated by a fraction of a percent out of 2.4 million ballots cast, it’s irresponsible of the media to make this call when the New Jersey Secretary of State doesn’t even know how many ballots are left to be counted,’ Ciattarelli Campaign Communications Director Stami Williams tweeted just 20 minutes after the declaration.
Ciattarelli retweeted Williams’ post in protest of the call.
Many are thinking that recount is inevitable given the close nature of the race, although — with more mail-ins being counted — the difference is now about 40,000 with 50 to 48.8, at last check.
New Jersey does not have an automatic recount law. People must petition the court for it within 17 days.
New Jersey was New Jersey so there were many issues in the counting.
As I noted on Election Day: Some numbers came slowly from Essex County and Passaic Counties. These are counties that tend to be heavily Democratic.
The reason why was allegedly the poll workers’ unfamiliarity with the machines. The poll workers in Paterson, Passaic County locked their ballots in an accident and made it impossible to count them all. Local election officials stated that similar events occurred in Essex County’s 56 voting districts, which caused the machines to turn off before they could be tallied.
“Those machines have to be brought back to the warehouse, and the judge will issue an order for us to open those machines, retrieve the results and post those results,’’ County Clerk Christopher Durkin told News 12.
He told The Post on Wednesday that he expects to have the districts’ results by Thursday night.
An order must be issued by a judge to open the machines.
Hudson County was also affected by issues. At least one ballot had been temporarily counted twice. They reportedly corrected the problem.
Other concerns were expressed by people about Bergen County. We noticed on election night that it was not common for Ciatterelli to win Bergen County. While there are certainly more conservative areas in Bergen — my old stomping grounds — it went to Joe Biden in the last election so it was a big deal to see those numbers with the GOP candidate up by five points at one point with allegedly 100 percent of the vote in. The numbers flipped 52 percent to 47 percent with Ciattarelli up to Murphy 51 percent – Ciattarelli 47 percent in the early morning hours. Naturally, people were concerned that there was something funny going on.
Bergen County made this statement online to address the question.
The CURRENT 100% FIGURE REPRESENTS ALL 70 TOWN VOTERS WHO CAME TO CAST THEIR REVOTE TO THE POLS ON ELECTION DATE WERE RECEIVED & COUNTED. CONSIDER BEING AWARE THAT EARLY VOTING, VOTE PER MAIL and PROVISIONAL BALLOT RESULTS CAN ALSO BE INTEGRATED TO THE LINK. After all votes have been counted, verified and certified the results of each vote will be made official.
In other words, 100 percent doesn’t exactly mean what you would think it would mean.
In a related story, we reported earlier that Project Veritas just dropped a video raising questions about a poll worker allowing a non-citizen to fill out what seems to be a provisional ballot which they’re not supposed to be able to do.
So we’ll let you know when and if a recount is filed, but it’s likely coming next when Ciattarelli issues such remarks.
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