Trump campaign sues N.J. to prevent state from mailing ballots

Aug. 19 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's re-election campaign has filed a federal lawsuit to block the state of New Jersey from sending ballots to all registered voters so they vote by mail if they wish.

Matt Morgan, an attorney for the Trump campaign, said the move is designed to avert voter fraud -- a widely disputed claim that the president has repeated numerous times in recent months.

The lawsuit says Gov. Phil Murphy sought to illegally bypass the New Jersey legislature by ordering the mail-in process.

"In the state of New Jersey, where their universal vote-by-mail system has already resulted in fraud and disenfranchisement, Gov. Murphy continues to remove safeguards against abuse," Morgan said. "With a stroke of his pen, the governor told his people their votes may not count -- they may even be stolen -- and that's fine by him."

The lawsuit says Murphy's order violates residents' right to vote.

New Jersey conducted a similar hybrid operation for its primary in July.

Murphy said there were small problems but the effort was a success.

"We mailed ballots to folks who were registered in either party. We mailed applications to those who weren't. And we also provided in-person voting capacity at least 50% in each county and at least one location in each municipality," he said. "It was a success. Not perfect, but overwhelmingly a success."

Experts have been in near universal agreement that more citizens voting by mail would not increase the chances of voter fraud.