Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate for governor in New Jersey, will not concede the race to Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, though the campaign notes that they are not ''alleging fraud or malfeasance,'' CBS News reports.
The Republican's campaign said in a statement that about 2.6% of the vote separates the two candidates, and that ''an unknown number of vote-by-mail ballots are still being received through today and have yet to be counted.''
Waiting an additional day or two for all votes to be counted should not be controversial, Mark Sheridan, Ciattarelli's legal counsel, said in a statement, which noted that "no one on this team is alleging fraud or malfeasance, as we have not seen any credible evidence of that."
He added: ''We still have vote-by-mail ballots outstanding and approximately 70,000 provisional ballots to be counted. At this time, we do not expect the provision vote count to end with Jack Ciattarelli in the lead. However, that count may reduce the margin for Governor Murphy enough to warrant a recount.
''We will make the decision to pursue a recount based on all of the facts, which includes that this is the first time New Jersey is conducting an election under the new law, using new technology and vote counting procedures.''
Murphy's campaign manager, Mollie Binotto, said in a memo that "the race is over. Assemblyman Ciattarelli is mathematically eliminated, and he must accept the results and concede the race. His continuing failure to do so is an assault on the integrity of our elections."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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