Ciattarelli Won’t Concede, Keeps Door Open for N.J. Recount

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who trails incumbent Phil Murphy by more than 66,000 votes, will wait for all ballots to be tallied before deciding whether to concede or seek a recount, according to his campaign.

Technology errors resulted in voters casting about 70,000 provisional ballots that have yet to be counted, his campaign said Monday in a statement. An unknown number of vote-by-mail ballots also remain outstanding.

“At this time, we do not expect the provisional vote count to end with Jack Ciattarelli in the lead,” the Republican’s campaign said. “However, that count may reduce the margin for Governor Murphy enough to warrant a full recount.”

Murphy claimed victory on Nov. 3 after the Associated Press declared the Democrat the winner. Monday is New Jersey’s deadline for all vote-by-mail ballots to be received by county elections offices.

Murphy’s campaign has asked Ciattarelli to concede. On Ciattarelli’s refusal to do so, Murphy said at a press briefing Monday that “I think it’s dangerous when it’s mathematically impossible to win.”

Murphy leads Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker, by 66,405 votes, a margin of 2.6%, according to figures from the Republican candidate’s campaign.  

“Our goal is to make sure that every vote is counted,” Ciattarelli campaign legal counsel Mark Sheridan said Monday during a call with reporters. The Murphy administration is trying to “short circuit the process,”  he said.

Sheridan says that they are “not hearing any credible accounts of fraud or malfeasance,” and that he is  “not looking to be Rudy Giuliani standing in front of a mulch pile. My goal is to make sure that we get an accurate count.”

‘Race Is Over’

If a recount were to be called, he says the threshold would probably have to be a voted differential between the two in the 1% range. Sheridan said they might have a good idea of the vote differential in the next 48 hours. 

Sheridan also said that they are going to wait and see if it makes sense to recount the vote and it would cost “around a million dollars to recount this, if not more.” The campaign has excess funds for compliance and legal work, but would need to seek approval from election officials to raise money for a recount.

Earlier on Monday, Murphy’s campaign manager Mollie Binotto urged Ciattarelli to concede, saying, “The race is over.”

“Assemblyman Ciattarelli is mathematically eliminated, and he must accept the results and concede the race,” Binotto said. “His continuing failure to do so is an assault on the integrity of our elections.”

Murphy’s campaign said the remaining mail-in ballots that still need to be counted will only “increase Governor Murphy’s margin” and that there are not enough provisional ballots to erase Murphy’s lead.

In the only other U.S. governor’s race this year, Republican Glenn Youngkin was declared the winner over Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who conceded on Nov. 3. Youngkin has a 2-point lead over McAuliffe, according to the AP.

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