Monmouth Co. Officials Call For Mail-In Voting Protocol Change

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — Declan O'Scanlon, a Republican state Senator who represents Monmouth County, is part of a chorus of voices calling for changes to be made to mail-in voting.

Mail-in voting has become enormously popular since the state of New Jersey started mailing ballots to every household, a change that happened under Gov. Phil Murphy: 597,869 people voted by mail in the 2021 election, according to the state; ballots were able to arrive as late as Nov. 8.

It's clear that mail-in voting is here to stay, but O'Scanlon (R-Little Silver) said he thinks New Jersey should make two key changes: Begin counting mail-in votes up to 24 hours before Election Day, and secondly, mandate that all mail-in ballots be received by no later than end of day on Election Day.

"There are drop boxes all over the place. If you're going to use vote-by-mail ballots, tell voters they have to get their ballot in the drop box by Election Day," said O'Scanlon. "Permitting vote-by-mail ballots to show up after Election Day just slows down the whole process."

"If we start counting them let's say, 24 hours before the election, the bulk of them will be counted by end of day Nov. 2," said O'Scanlon. "There is no reason the rest of us should have to wait 10 days for election results to come in."

By law, vote-by-mail ballots could arrive up to six days after the Nov. 2 Election Day, as late as Nov. 8. Also, current New Jersey election law forbids counting mail-in ballots until Election Day itself actually arrives. Only compounding the delay is that provisional votes cannot begin to be counted until all the vote-by-mail ballots are in.

All of this delayed New Jersey's vote-counting process by up to a week, said O'Scanlon. He added that he fully backed Republican governor candidate Jack Ciatterelli's decision not to concede the race until all votes were counted.

"He was absolutely right and I'm sorry to anybody suggesting that he was wrong," said O'Scanlon. "He did the right thing and, while waiting to have all votes counted, he was very classy and circumspect. He made no allegations of fraud. He and Steve Sweeney both did the right thing by not conceding until all votes were counted. Anybody that had a close race this November has got to be in agreement with me that some changes need to be made."

A spokesman for Sweeney, the Senate president and powerful South Jersey Democrat who lost to a trucker, did not immediately respond. But Sweeney told NJ.com this week: “What’s wrong with letting every vote be counted, and when it’s over it’s over?” Read more: Trucker With $153 Campaign Unseats NJ Senate President

“I believe that the process needs to be reformed," agreed Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, also a Republican. She called for "legislators to sit down with election officials to craft solutions. Election officials have vast knowledge of these problems and how the changes to laws passed over the past four years have contributed to the delays in counting of ballots.”

Her comment was a not-so-subtle dig at Murphy, who has greatly expanded mail-in-voting during his time in office. Murphy says mail-in voting improves access to voting; he backs a bill likely to be passed in Trenton right now that will give New Jersey voters living abroad the right to vote in all state and local elections.

“The fact that we are 10 days past the election, and votes are still being counted, is a problem for every close election to come,” said Ciattarelli in his concession speech last Friday.

But it's not just Republican officials who are calling for election reform. On Wednesday, the editorial board of the Star-Ledger published this opinion piece that similarly calls for mail-in votes to start being counted earlier.

“This is definitely something that’s got to be changed,” NJ.com quoted Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for NJ Politics at Rider. “Giving the counties more time to count is the most basic and easiest thing to understand — they can’t count all the mail ballots on the same day they run the election. We can expect a replay of this again next year if they don’t fix this."

O'Scanlon also said NJ should do a better job of educating voters that they could have voted by machine early, up to nine days before the election. About 200,000 NJ residents voted early by machine, just 3.2 percent of eligible voters — a sign that more people need to be made aware they could have voted that way, said O'Scanlon.

Monmouth County actually led the state in early machine voting. More than six percent of Monmouth County voters voted early by machine, the highest percentage in the state, according to the county clerk. Additionally, 49 percent of eligible Monmouth County voters voted in total in this election, a higher turnout than the statewide average of 37 percent.

"With all these ways to vote early, there's no need to make it this drawn-out process. Let's greater publicize that New Jersey residents could have machine voted early,"said O'Scanlon.

"And if a mail-in ballot shows up after Election Day, it's not counted. I think with some very reasonable changes, we can make our election reporting system much more efficient."

O'Scanlon represents NJ's 13th District, which includes the towns of Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Fair Haven, Hazlet, Highlands, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Little Silver, Marlboro, Middletown, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Sea Bright, Rumson and Union Beach.

Subscribe to get local Monmouth County news, and news from across the state: https://patch.com/subscribe

Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com