One week after the election between Jack Ciattarelli and Governor Phil Murphy, the incumbent governor holds a commanding 68,000 vote lead over his opponent. The margin of difference in the race is now at 3%, and Ciattarelli maintains that he is not out yet, despite few votes left to be counted.
Phil Murphy has repeated that it is now mathematically impossible for Ciattarelli to stage a comeback as the final mail-in and provisional ballots are being counted today. The window for late mail-in ballots to be received has now closed as of 8 pm on Monday evening, so all the votes that are to be counted are in.
County boards of elections are soon expected to finalize their ballot-counting results and things aren’t looking good at all for Ciattarelli.
Despite the wide margin of defeat, Ciattarelli continues to contest the election results, saying he won’t concede until every legal vote is counted. Republicans are now calling for Ciattarelli to contest the election and demand a recount and an election audit before giving up.
Republicans have deployed lawyers from the RNC to ensure election integrity in New Jersey and Ciattarelli’s team is urging voters to report any voting irregularities.
Murphy today said Ciattarelli’s refusal to concede is ‘dangerous’ and could undermine the integrity of New Jersey’s election process.