To the editor:
Election season begins with the primary June 4. That thought resonated when reading a letter by Democrat Municipal Chairman Erick Martinez in the May 20 Pascack Press. He felt a prior Pascack Press article about voter fraud concerns were somehow disingenuous and possibly a reflection upon Westwood’s Democrat Committee, considering their candidate’s victory was overturned based upon votes being nullified as “unlawful and fraudulent vote-by-mail ballots.”
The initial article raised a valid concern on mail-in ballots’ ease of use as a vehicle of voter fraud. I know when my mother passed she still received a ballot the first year after her passing. It would have been no problem for someone to complete and mail in.
Likewise in my youth, when I moved out of the house, I subletted in Westwood but didn’t move my legal address, continuing to vote in my parents’ community. Not having a legal lease I wasn’t sure where I’d plant roots. As a son with two brothers and three sisters, my parents’ home held a voting block of eight votes. In a small town election, that can mean the difference between a loss or victory, as was the case in Westwood.
I disagree with Mr. Martinez’s assertion that because some of his candidates’ votes were invalidated as nonresident friends with established housing leases elsewhere, that state Assembly members were somehow improper in asking state’s Attorney General to establish a vote-by-mail guideline; basing that request in part on Westwood’s experience.
Mr. Martinez himself validated that concern by implying, without proof; the other party was guilty of invalid votes. But that aspect was just one concern in Westwood’s voting process last year, another was raised where Democrats utilized a local non-profit to solicit votes.
No criticism is intended toward anyone other than to highlight elections have consequences. No voter should be disenfranchised. The voting process needs to be specific and clear so that a legitimate representative is validated, not a manufactured political choice.
This a statewide concern now since Gov. Murphy, a Democrat, signed a new law: voters who mailed in their ballots for 2016 general election are automatically registered to receive a new mail-in ballot in subsequent elections. Assembly members Holly Schepisi and Robert Auth’s concerns are valid. With address forwarding, how many nonresident voters might decide other communities’ future?
Thomas Wanner
Westwood
The writer is a former Republican mayor of Westwood