PRESS RELEASE

MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ 一 The Bob Hugin for U.S. Senate campaign today declared victory in protecting the right of voters to cast ballots by mail, and the campaign secured a separate, binding agreement with Middlesex County authorities to protect the integrity of how those votes are counted.

Middlesex County was recently reported to have the highest rate of vote-by-mail ballots in the state this election year.

“The challenges the Hugin campaign raised with Middlesex County involved protecting the integrity of the vote-by-mail process, and we can proudly say that we achieved our goal,” said Hugin Campaign Counsel Mark Sheridan.

A Superior Court judge upheld a lawsuit filed on October 4th by the Hugin campaign against Middlesex County Clerk Elaine Flynn, ruling that she violated state law by refusing to accept pre-printed applications for vote-by-mail ballots bearing a pre-printed assistor signature. She was the only clerk in all of New Jersey’s 21 counties who refused to accept such ballot applications. The court order requires her to accept the applications and issue the ballots.

In a separate matter, the Hugin campaign challenged plans by Middlesex County to have the vote-by-mail ballots opened and counted by an overwhelmingly partisan team of 100 county employees, only four of whom were Republicans. The Hugin campaign threatened to return to Superior Court, contending state laws would be violated and the process would open the ballot process to fraud if the ballots were not opened and counted by a truly bipartisan team of workers.

“Fortunately the campaign did not have to go back into court to resolve the ballot counting dispute. After we insisted Middlesex County create a truly bipartisan team to open and handle the vote-by-mail ballots in a transparent way, the county agreed,” said Sheridan.

Protecting the integrity of the vote-by-mail process is crucial this year, with a record high number of voters opting to cast ballots by mail, according to New Jersey election officials. As of October 31st, County clerks had reported issuing 553,606 vote-by-mail ballot applications among the state’s 21 counties for this year’s midterm election on November 6th.

Bob Hugin, a Marine Corps Veteran and business leader who has created thousands of New Jersey jobs, is running for U.S. Senate against incumbent Senator Bob Menendez. For more information visit bobhugin.com.

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