The May 12 election for Paterson’s Third Ward City Council was “full of controversy over procedural disputes,” Judge Ernest Caposela said in his ruling, although he questioned whether there was voter fraud before the criminal courts.
The campaign of President Donald Trump and Republicans has understood the election problems in Paterson, as they argue against a plan by the Democratic governor of New Jersey to have universal vote-by-post. They say the fraud in the city race precedes fraud in November.
Paterson’s mayor accepted the ruling.
“It was the right statement. Those past elections were full of fraud,” Mayor Andre Sayegh told CNN. “The City will uphold the judge’s decision and we have created the mayor’s election awareness team to preserve the value of the vote in Paterson.”
A Paterson councilman and the elected councilor were among four people accused of criminal conduct involving post-a-ballot papers at the election, the New Jersey Attorney General announced in late June.
Scott Salmon, attorney for Introduced Counsel William McKoy in the case, told CNN that his client was “upset” by the ruling.
“That’s the cost of democracy. We’d rather get it right, do it twice, then not get it right,” Salmon said.
The lawyer for the elected councilor agreed.
“All parties have agreed to the new election and frankly, we welcome it. Of course, we would just like to take the seat, because we, in our view fair and square, won, but November 3 will be a high level of participation. be … and we are very confident that we will win in the end, “said Gregg Paster, lawyer for Alex Mendez, who won the first election in May by 240 votes.
The campaign by Trump and the Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against Gov. on Tuesday. Phil Murphy’s universal vote by mail order, courtesy of Paterson.
The Attorney General has charged four people in Paterson, NJ – including one sitting city council member and one city council candidate who nominally won his race – on prosecutors who emerge from a scheme to collect hundreds of absent votes in that election and “illegally post… That scheme led to a crisis in Paterson, and demanded that the city hold another election between the accused candidate and his opponent, as it is impossible to determine how many fraudulent ballots were issued,” Trump wrote. campaign and the Republican Party challenging New Jersey leaders.
“It was a local election in Paterson. Some guys tried to scrap the system,” Murphy told MSNBC on Thursday. “I see it as a really positive data point. They’ve been caught.”
A mail carrier was also fired as part of allegations of voter fraud in the May election, according to a report by the USPS Inspector General obtained by CNN. The report does not disclose the name of the postal worker, but states that on May 19, the person received a report of removal and accused of “incomplete disposition of mail.”
In addition to allegations of fraud, more than 24% of ballots were rejected for not complying with the email standard. No other municipal election that day had a deviation figure higher than 13%, according to the ruling.
The new election will take place on November 3rd.
Kelly Mena and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
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