By David Richter
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I’m running for Congress because the Democrats have hijacked our state and our country and are holding them hostage in an attempt to achieve their liberal wish-list of higher taxes, more spending and bigger, more intrusive government. Our state’s economy is in shambles because Governor Murphy has decided to micro-manage our economy, picking winners and losers, and he kept businesses closed far longer than necessary. If we want our children and grandchildren to be able to afford to grow up in this great state that we call home, we can’t let Phil Murphy and the Democrats succeed.
Let me be frank fellow Save Jerseyans: Phil Murphy wins when Republicans don’t vote. Full Stop. Republicans are outnumbered by Democrats by more than one million voters statewide and if we protest this election by sitting out because we don’t like vote-by-mail, then we are going to lose. Never before has a governor unilaterally changed the way we vote mere months before Election Day and it shouldn’t have been done now.
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Remember, it was only two short years ago that Republicans held five of our 12 congressional seats here in New Jersey. The Democrats know that if they don’t manipulate the system and pull out every trick in the book they could lose those seats back. That’s why Governor Murphy has used the pandemic as an excuse to implement a mandatory, statewide vote-by-mail program. He knows that Democrats are more inclined to vote-by-mail than Republicans and that creates an inherent advantage for them going into Election Day. Right here in the Third District (which consists of most of Ocean and Burlington counties), where Tom MacArthur lost by a mere 1% two years ago, there are currently almost 12,000 more Democratic ballots returned than Republican ballots (as of the time of this writing). That is a trend that is being seen throughout the state.
Save Jerseyans: I have a simple request for all of you. Return your vote-by-mail ballot, even if you don’t like this process. If you don’t trust the post office, then use one of the many drop-boxes that are located in every county throughout the state. If you are in the Third District, my campaign has made it easy, you can visit Richter2020.com/vote to find the location closest to you. These drop-boxes can only be opened with two keys—one Democrat and one Republican—and they are monitored by security cameras. They are safe and secure and you can trust that once you deposit your ballot in one of them your vote will be counted.
I know many of you want to vote in person, because you have voted that way all or most of your lives and you trust it. But this year is different. You won’t be allowed to use a voting machine (unless you are disabled). That means you are going to have to fill out a provisional paper ballot, and then hand it over to a poll worker. Or you can hand over your completed vote-by-mail ballot. But those ballots won’t be counted on Election Day, in fact they might not be counted for weeks.
And here’s the biggest problem. We know based upon polls that most Republicans want to vote in person and most Democrats will vote by mail. That means a much larger number of voters on Election Day will be Republicans. But what if there are long, slow lines at the polls? This is highly likely, as the paper ballots will take longer than machine voting. And there will be fewer polls open. What if there are really long lines and people start leaving because they don’t have time to waste. What if there is adverse weather like a thunderstorm that keeps people away from the polls. That would be a disaster for Republicans. But the Democrats won’t care, because they will have mailed in their ballots weeks earlier.
If we are going to be successful this year in the battleground congressional districts throughout the state, we are going to have to work together. Reach out to your family, your friends and your neighbors and make sure that they return their ballots before Election Day. Republicans from the top of the ticket all the way down to the bottom will thank you for it!
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DAVID RICHTER is the 2020 Republican nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District.
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