Mail-in ballots have long been acknowledged by voting experts to be more susceptible to fraud and irregularities than in-person voting.
Khalique's brother, Shelim, and Razyen have been charged by the state attorney general for crimes including fraud in casting mail-in votes, tampering, and unauthorized possession of ballots.
The average disqualification rate for mail-in ballots in all 31 elections across the state was an alarming 9.6%. New Jersey's municipal elections aren't broadly comparable to nationwide elections for a variety of reasons, but the 2016 presidential election resulted in a popular vote total with a differential of just over 2%, with fewer than 80,000 votes in a handful of swing states determining the Electoral College victor.
Voting irregularities with mail-in ballots could be much less pronounced than what happened in New Jersey last month and still produce a great deal of uncertainty in a national election.
"In New Jersey, people found out that this is going to be an all-mail-in election only a month before, whereas obviously November is still a ways away and there's a lot more time to educate voters on how to fill out these ballots and how to return them," he told RCP. But he concedes that it's "Still a fair point" to look at New Jersey's elections last month and see cause for concern about the national elections.
Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, acknowledged on the Election Law Blog last month that there's "Genuine absentee ballot fraud scandal going on in Paterson, New Jersey and it is going to get a lot of national attention." Hasen argues that it's not cause for concern noting there were only 491 prosecutions related to absentee ballots nationwide between 2000 and 2012.
"But the push to expand vote by mail is worth it given the great health benefits of increased voting by mail during a pandemic, the small risk of fraud, and the likelihood that fraud will get caught."
Khalique's brother, Shelim, and Razyen have been charged by the state attorney general for crimes including fraud in casting mail-in votes, tampering, and unauthorized possession of ballots.
The average disqualification rate for mail-in ballots in all 31 elections across the state was an alarming 9.6%. New Jersey's municipal elections aren't broadly comparable to nationwide elections for a variety of reasons, but the 2016 presidential election resulted in a popular vote total with a differential of just over 2%, with fewer than 80,000 votes in a handful of swing states determining the Electoral College victor.
Voting irregularities with mail-in ballots could be much less pronounced than what happened in New Jersey last month and still produce a great deal of uncertainty in a national election.
"In New Jersey, people found out that this is going to be an all-mail-in election only a month before, whereas obviously November is still a ways away and there's a lot more time to educate voters on how to fill out these ballots and how to return them," he told RCP. But he concedes that it's "Still a fair point" to look at New Jersey's elections last month and see cause for concern about the national elections.
Rick Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, acknowledged on the Election Law Blog last month that there's "Genuine absentee ballot fraud scandal going on in Paterson, New Jersey and it is going to get a lot of national attention." Hasen argues that it's not cause for concern noting there were only 491 prosecutions related to absentee ballots nationwide between 2000 and 2012.
"But the push to expand vote by mail is worth it given the great health benefits of increased voting by mail during a pandemic, the small risk of fraud, and the likelihood that fraud will get caught."
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