NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday that much of New Jersey's voting in November will be done through mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview on CNN's "New Day," Murphy confirmed that the state plans to use a hybrid model for the election like it did the primaries.
Under the plan, all 6.2 million registered voters in the state would be sent ballots in the mail for the Nov. 3 election. A select number of polling places would remain open for people who want to cast their ballot in-person.
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"We delayed our primary to July 7 and we pursued a hybrid model," Murphy said on CNN. "We mailed ballots to folks who are registered in either party, we mailed applications to those who weren't, and we also provided in person voting capacity — at least 50 percent in each county in at least one location in each municipality."
"It was a success, not perfect, but overwhelmingly a success," Murphy added. "So we're going to announce, not to break too much news here later today, that we're going to extend that model into the general election in November."
Murphy indicated that the only in-person voting will be with provisional ballots. That means if voters want to cast their ballot in person, they'll have to go to one of a reduced number of polling places and cast a ballot that will be counted only after officials determine the voter didn't mail in a ballot.
During a news briefing hours after his CNN appearance, Murphy said active, registered New Jersey voters will "automatically receive a prepaid return-postage vote-by-mail ballot." Ballots will be mailed to voters by Oct. 5.
As with the state's primary election, there will be no sample ballots, he noted. Voters will be able to return their ballots by mail, by depositing it in a secure drop box, or by handing it directly to a poll worker at a polling place on Election Day, he said.
The development comes just a day after Republican President Donald Trump acknowledged that he's starving the United States Postal Service of cash to make it harder to process millions of mailed-in ballots.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
