New Jersey officials reported Wednesday 399 new confirmed COVID-19 cases. That brings the new cumulative total to 188,427 since the state began tracking cases March 4.
Officials also reported an additional 11 deaths from the virus; raising the death toll to 14,097. The number of probable deaths was revised downward to 1,829. The latest rate of transmission is above the benchmark at 1.06; meaning for every new case, more than one other person will get infected.
According to the state hospital association, hospitalizations from the coronavirus is below 500. There are 471 COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the state; 92 of them are in critical care as of Tuesday night.
Made with Flourish State GOP joins Trump campaign in election lawsuit The New Jersey Republican Party is once again suing the Murphy administration. This time, they joined with President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee — the plaintiffs — in hopes of undoing Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order calling for an all mail-in November General Election due to the pandemic.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs called the executive order “a direct usurpation of the legislature’s authority” and a “brazen power grab” that violates the Elections Clause and Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution. They further allege that the governor “in his haste” created a system that will violate a citizen’s right to vote and “created a recipe for disaster.”
Gov. Phil Murphy responded to the lawsuit at the beginning of Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing. He said the Trump campaign is putting itself on the record as wanting to delegitimize the election as opposed to working together to protect the process and public health.
“This goes far beyond attempts at weaponizing the United States Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” he said. “This is now becoming a full-throated propaganda campaign to undermine the election itself.” The suit also alleges that the Garden State has “a long history of problems with voting by mail” and that “countless individuals have been convicted of voter fraud tied to absentee ballots over the last decade.”
The plaintiffs point to recent charges by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal against four people accused of voting fraud in Paterson’s special election in May — including Council Vice President Michael Jackson and Councilman-elect Alex Mendez — as an example.
But Murphy counters that what happened in Paterson was a “positive data point.” “People tried to screw with the system. They got caught. They’ve been indicted and if they’re convicted, they’ll pay a price,” he said, “that’s the system working.”