I am writing this letter to address an obvious elephant in the room. So, with that being said let’s get down to it.

The moment Governor Phil Murphy announced that elections would be conducted via vote-by-mail, I sounded the alarm about the potential of voter fraud, especially in the May 2020 municipal elections.

I started a petition calling on the governor to postpone the election citing my concerns. While political insiders disregarded my concerns, the state and the governor obviously didn’t. They concurred that something would be amiss.

I knew at that moment that the elections would be closely monitored and contested. Yet, none of the local political leaders paid any attention. My concerns were disregarded.

I warned folks not to knowingly and willingly engage in fraudulent behavior with regards to the vote by mail election. Again, no one took me seriously.

Fast forward to March 2021. There seems to be some deliberately misguided notion that the
recent criminal charges filed by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and the subsequent indictments handed down by a state grand jury are politically motivated.

Let’s not forget that every single candidate who entered the 2020 Paterson municipal elections was warned that this election was going to be monitored rather carefully in response to many complaints of election fraud.

While I hate to reiterate the point and to say I told you so, I have to say it, I told you so. What did you expect to happen in this matter?

Some folks thought they could just flout New Jersey’s election laws and get away with it because of the pandemic. They thought it would take years for prosecutors to figure out who did what and why. Well, you think long, you think wrong.

The AG’s office was monitoring the 2020 municipal elections from DAY ONE, I told you that but you didn’t want to listen. It’s sad to see some good people get caught up in a terrible situation but history let’s us know that bad company often yields bad results.

Lastly, where was all this rage when William McKoy was getting cheated out of a seat he has served in with honor, dignity, honesty, integrity and respect? Where’s the rage in what happened there? Let the law do what it was meant to do.

In this case, it was to protect the sanctity of the vote and to protect the authenticity of the process. This has nothing to do with targeting black and brown men. It’s about targeting those who seek to break the law and walk away unscathed.

Corey L. Teague
School board member and activist