Local officials defend election system after Trump claim

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order soon launching an investigation into unfounded claims of massive voter fraud that Trump says have produced up to 5 million illegal votes in last year’s election.

“It will be a follow-up on the announcement yesterday of his commitment to better understand voter fraud, faulty registration, et cetera,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said. “That’s our intent right now.”

Trump had planned to sign the order Thursday, but Spicer said it has been delayed because the president’s schedule got backed up.

Trump delays signing order to investigate unfounded voter fraud claims

State and federal election officials call Trump fraud claim unfounded

Bernhard Langer blames media for Trump report

The order will be the latest move in a saga that began Monday night, when Trump told members of Congress that 3 million to 5 million illegal voters cost him the popular vote against Clinton.

He repeated the unsupported assertion in an interview Wednesday with ABC News — complaining that his remarks were intended to be confidential, and claiming he would have won the popular vote if not for fraud.

“There are millions of votes, in my opinion,” he said. “And I will say this, of those votes cast, none of ’em come to me. None of ’em come to me. They would all be for the other side.”

Congressional leaders and election officials from both parties have said there’s no evidence to back Trump’s claims.

Trump falsely attributed his claims to a 2012 report by the Pew Center on the States on problems with voter registration, including outdated, inaccurate or duplicate registrations. But that study, first reported by USA TODAY, contained no evidence of voter fraud or criminal intent, instead attributing the problem to a broken and bureaucratic system of decentralized election administration.

Trump tweeted Wednesday said he would order an investigation into voter fraud. Spicer later said the White House was thinking more in terms of a study of the issue.

Participants in the meeting in which Trump claimed illegal voters told The New York Times that the president buttressed his claim with a story from Bernhard Langer, a professional golfer who supposedly waited in an Election Day line with people who didn’t look like they belonged there.

Langer said the story has been distorted, describing it as he would the children’s game of “telephone” in which he was just one participant. He noted that he is German and therefore ineligible to vote in the United States.

“The voting situation reported was not conveyed from me to President Trump, but rather was told to me by a friend,” Langer said in a statement reported by the Golf Channel. “I then relayed the story in conversation with another friend, who shared it with a person with ties to the White House. From there, this was misconstrued.”

The view in Central Jersey

Central Jersey officials responsible for monitoring voting said Thursday that they are confident the system is working correctly.

“I’ve been an election officer for over 20 years in Union County and there have been many, many, many studies done,” Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi said. Those studies have found that the incidents of voter fraud are “infinitesimal,” she said.

“Could it occur? Absolutely, but it’s very difficult for someone to vote fraudulently,” Rajoppi said. “We do have failsafes in place. The state of New Jersey has criteria in place that we have to adhere to, which prohibits any chance of people voting fraudulently.”

Rajoppi said New Jersey has the Statewide Voter Registration System. If someone comes into her office and requests an absentee ballot, a form must be filled out. The form is then checked against a record in the statewide system.

“If your birthdate doesn’t match, if your signature doesn’t match or if there is something wrong, you don’t get a ballot,” she said. “When I give you the ballot I’m also going to ask for identification.”

There are also safeguards in place at the polls. “There is a poll book that contains the voter’s signature,” Rajoppi said. “You have to sign the voter slip before voting. There are also challengers there, who can question a poll worker about a voter if they believe the voter has moved out of town or there is another possible disqualification. We know that fraud it not possible on the machines. You can’t manipulate the machines.”

Rajoppi said comments made without evidence or proof “are dangerous and erode the confidence of the voting public,” adding that she is willing to open her office to any legitimate investigation.

“My question is: Whose paying for it,” she said. “Is the American public paying for something that has already been proven to be valid.”

Brett Radi, Somerset County clerk, said that his office handles the vote by mail ballots and filing petitions, while the Somerset County Board of Elections oversees the voter registration, the voting machines, programming the machines and Election Day polls.

“So with regards to that part, no I am not aware of any issues of voter fraud,” he said. “If a signature doesn’t match or the application didn’t match, we deal with that by sending the voter a letter and then they usually respond back.”

“We do follow if there is any discrepancy in the application process, we do have tools available to send them a letter and follow-up,” he said. “I’m not aware of any issues on my side that can be treated as fraud or as an issue that needs warrant or merit.”

Jerry Midgette, Somerset County election board administrator, did not respond to multiple requests for comment by phone and email, nor did representatives from the Middlesex County clerk’s office.

Mary Melfi, Hunterdon County clerk, also oversees vote by mail ballots.

“They are scrubbed at all levels,” she said. “You have signature verification and I would say -- but you can never say never -- but I think the process is tight enough in Hunterdon, and we do our jobs so there’s not voter fraud.”

She did mention instances of parents attempting to sign the signature of their kids on the ballots, but said that those instances were dealt with accordingly and she didn't classify them as fraud.

There was not any suspicious activity on Election Day in Hunterdon County, according to Beth Thompson, supervisor of the county board of election.

“Procedurally at the polls, the training that poll workers receive requires them to compare the signature provided by the voter to the signature that they print in the poll book, and if for some reason they feel that that signature is different or not the same, then they are allowed to ask for identification,” she said.

“Under no circumstances did we get any reports of anyone trying to impersonate anyone,” she said.

The Justice Department, which would investigate violations of the federal voting rights laws, has declined to comment on Trump’s call for an inquiry.

Staff writers Susan Loyer and Nick Muscavage contributed to this report