NUTLEY - It's bound to happen at just about every Jack Ciattarelli event. As Ciattarelli talks about his 2021 campaign, someone in the audience says, "You really won that race."

That's not surprising. Ever since Donald Trump claimed he won reelection in 2020, some passionate Republicans are convinced Ciattarelli lost to Phil Murphy four years ago because Democrats cheated.

On Monday, Ciattarelli spoke at a "town hall" meeting and sure enough, the 2021 race came up.

Ciattarelli has never embraced the idea he lost to Phil Murphy because Democrats cheated. And he said so again on Monday.

"Fraud is not what cost me the election in 2021," he said.

Why did he lose?

Ciattarelli said he lost because so many registered Republicans did not vote.

There was more.

He took the time to explain what actually happened back on Nov. 2--3, 2021. Or more specifically, why he was leading the race late on Election Day, but ended up losing when all the votes were counted the following morning.
That year's election was held during the pandemic, which meant a majority of voters cast their ballots via mail.

When the polls closed at 8 p.m., the "machine results" were announced first by counties throughout the state. Things may be changing, but four years ago Republicans were more likely than Dems to vote in person on Election Day. Machine votes are much easier to count than mail-in votes.

That's why Ciattarelli was leading at, say, around 10 p.m. But mail-in votes were still being counted. And because mail-in ballots tend to lean Democratic, Ciattarelli fell behind when all was said and done the next day.

As he acknowledged, there was no widespread cheating - just the counting of ballots.

This year, Ciattarelli said the mail-in votes will be counted starting at 6 p.m, so the results should be known sooner.

Ciattarelli explained the ins and outs of ballot counting to more than 100 supporters jammed into a catering hall on the borough's main street.

Accusations of election fraud are so common among some Republicans, you wondered if all in the crowd believed him.
Ciattarelli did try to convince people they should not worry about ballot integrity. He reminded the crowd that every county has a Board of Elections that counts mail-in ballots. And despite the political leaning of the county, the election boards have equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats.

The real point here, perhaps, was that many registered Republicans did not vote in 2021. And that is what Ciattarelli wants to remedy. Of course, many registered Democrats did not vote either in 2021, so things do have a way of balancing out.

Other than his 2021 election history lesson, Ciattarelli energized the crowd with his stump speech. He said Mikie Sherrill knows nothing about New Jersey and that she is not a "centrist" by any interpretation.

He reiterated his plans to end New Jersey's status as a "sanctuary state," not to develop windmills off the Jersey Shore and to devise a more equitable school funding formula.

And then, he said, he would bring back plastic bags. The crowd cheered enthusiastically.

Ciattarelli laughed and said:

"It brings down the house every time."