Trump’s mail suit vs. NJ

President Trump’s campaign has sued New Jersey over Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to mail a ballot to every Garden State voter for the November election.

The suit, filed in federal court on Tuesday, argues that Murphy, a Democrat, misappropriated the power that rests with the state’s legislature to change election laws and violates the US Constitution.

“In his haste, the governor created a system that will violate eligible citizens’ right to vote,” the lawsuit says. “By ordering universal vote-by-mail, he has created a recipe for disaster. Fraudulent and invalid votes dilute the votes of honest citizens and deprive them of their right to vote in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Some Jersey polls would still be open for people to use written provisional ballots.

The lawsuit also noted a council race in Paterson which is still up in the air because of allegations of fraud during the May primary. That election, conducted entirely by mail, represents the latest in the state’s “long history of problems with voting by mail,” the suit says.

Murphy, who announced the voteby-mail plan to keep polling places closed in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, called the suit “full-throated propaganda.”

“As the president and his team try to delegitimize our election and impact the health and safety of millions of New Jerseyans, we will defend our rights vigorously, and we will not back down,” Murphy said. “So, as they say, ‘Bring it on.’ ”