As the U.S. Supreme Court sizes up President Trump's appeal on an injunction against his executive order to stick a fork in mail-in ballots, Republican county clerks here in New Jersey are proceeding with usual VBM protocols, in alignment with the U.S. Constitution granting oversight to the states.

"There's an injunction, no one's doing anything different," said Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon. "It's status quo."

If the Supreme Court were to side with Trump, they concede they'd have havoc on their hands - or at least an entirely new set of challenges with time ticking down to the November 3rd election.

But right now, they're operating according to the same procedures as their Democratic constitutional officer colleagues.

"We're moving ahead with the court order," said Sussex County Clerk Jeff Parrott. "I don't anticipate a change - not that I'm the Supreme Court. But you have to look at the overall effect. There are [local] questions that have to be on the ballot. My people have put the ballots together. To change everything would be a major complication."

Parrott cited the scheduled Sept. 19th commencement of vote by mail and described the situation as "business as usual."

"Our ballots are already done," added the Sussex Clerk. "If there are changes, naturally I'm going to abide by the law."

So is Cape May County Clerk Rita Rothberg.

"I plan to commence mailing as scheduled, without [the federal] intelligent bar code," Rothberg told InsiderNJ. "It's late in the game and difficult to pivot. Our supplies are in place. We have enough supplies to cover this election. We don't have more than that."

New printings would cause chaos at this point.

"I will say when the executive order was issued [in March], if all states had complied, we would be in a different place," Rothberg said. "We're not in that place."

Hunterdon County Clerk Mary Melfi concurred.

"I'm following the state's directive," Melfi said. "My belief is the Constitution provides the states handle elections. To me, the vote by mails are under New Jersey state law. For the most part I don't have any miliary and/or overseas ballots that go through the U.S. mail. They're emailed and the executive order says nothing about emails.

"If the Supreme Court hears it as an emergent matter, [that would change the game]," she added.

"The secretary of state's office is in constant contact and they're saying 'move forward.' We have nothing to stop us from moving forward."

New Jersey has its own issues with voter registration going back to Governor Mikie Sherrill's revelation of the state Division of Motor Vehicles improperly registering non-citizen voters during the Phil Murphy Administration.

"From the day that bill went through back in 2019, I was opposed to it," Melfi told InsiderNJ. "They never checked the boxes. They never tested it. Motor vehicles don't have a reputation for being a well-run agency. They can't run their own product let alone handling voting.

"It makes me sad and upset," she added. "They still haven't told us who the 400 [noncitizen voters] are. Did they vote maliciously or were they just mailed a ballot? Nobody has done a complete audit. ...The state needs to be the responsible authority. We need an accurate data base."