{"id":3037,"date":"2025-10-21T13:39:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2025-10-21T13:39:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:39:04","slug":"just-in-gop-blows-whistle-after-dems-get-caught-blocking-ballot-security-in-key-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/?p=3037","title":{"rendered":"JUST IN: GOP Blows Whistle After Dems Get Caught Blocking Ballot Security In Key County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Passaic County Board of Elections is under fire \u2014 and possibly heading to court \u2014 after rejecting a push from local Republicans to beef up ballot security and speed up vote counting ahead of the November 4 general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Passaic County Republican Organization had called for tighter oversight of ballots, including installing security cameras inside ballot storage rooms, setting up a two-party lock system to control access, and posting a sheriff\u2019s officer on-site 24 hours a day for added protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GOP officials also demanded the county start opening and canvassing mail-in ballots five days before Election Day, a procedure they say is already being used successfully in other New Jersey counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are not radical reforms,\u201d said<\/a> Mark Semeraro, counsel for the Passaic County Republican Organization. \u201cThey are common-sense safeguards employed by other counties in New Jersey. Bergen and Essex do this and tabulate their election results without delay, unlike Passaic County.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sharply worded letter to Board of Elections Chairman John Currie \u2014 who also happens to chair the Passaic County Democratic Party \u2014 Semeraro blasted the board\u2019s \u201cintentional silence\u201d and accused it of \u201cabdication of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn an age where almost anything imaginable can be obtained at the click of a button with lightning speed, refusing to employ any and all means necessary to ensure a speedy and accurate election result is nothing short of an abdication of responsibility,\u201d Semeraro wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans argue the board\u2019s refusal feeds public mistrust and slows down the democratic process. They point to Passaic County\u2019s reputation for dragging its feet on election results \u2014 sometimes taking more than a week after Election Day to report final tallies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no justification for Passaic County\u2019s failure to engage in the early opening and canvassing of Vote-by-Mail ballots and employing security measures to ensure election integrity,\u201d Semeraro said. \u201cRegardless of political affiliation, New Jerseyans simply deserve to have a speedy and accurate election night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GOP is now weighing legal action to force the county to adopt the security steps \u2014 setting up what could become yet another battle in New Jersey\u2019s ongoing war over election integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s\u00a0gubernatorial race, pitting Republican Jack Ciattarelli against Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill, is widely considered to be neck-and-neck, with polls\u00a0showing the pair within the margin of error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Passaic County Board of Elections is under fire \u2014 and possibly heading to court \u2014 after rejecting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3040,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions\/3040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/states-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}