A New Jersey voter | Getty Images Murphy officially delays New Jersey primary to July 7: ‘I don’t want a Wisconsin’

Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday officially postponed New Jersey’s primary election from June 2 to July 7 because of the coronavirus pandemic, declaring, “I don’t want a Wisconsin, where folks have to pick between exercising their right to vote on the one hand and protecting their own personal health.”

Murphy said he signed an executive order to delay the primary for two reasons.


“First, we want to preserve the possibility that improvements in the public health situation will allow for in-person voting, and delaying the primary by five weeks increases the likelihood of that,” Murphy said during his daily briefing. “If, failing that, we eventually have to make the move to a statewide all vote-by-mail election … we have to make sure our systems are able to handle that.”

POLITICO on Tuesday was first to report that Murphy was likely to delay the primary — which will include presidential and congressional races — to July 7.

Despite attempts by its governor to delay that state’s primary, Wisconsin went ahead with it on Tuesday, even though there’s a shelter-in-place order because of the virus. Voters were forced to wait in line — sometimes in the rain — to cast votes, with the worst voting conditions in the state’s largest city of Milwaukee, where only a fraction of polling places actually opened.

The widely expected delay in New Jersey allows the state more time to decide whether the election should be conducted solely by mail-in ballot or whether polling places will open.

“Our democracy cannot be a casualty of Covid-19,” Murphy said.

The deadline for candidates to file for the June 2 primary has already passed, and Murphy’s executive order doesn’t reopen it. It delays all deadlines after April 11 to be pushed back. Thursday’s deadline for voters to change party affiliation will also be delayed to May 13.

The state got more flexibility to move its primary date after the Democratic National Committee moved its national convention from July to August, allowing the state to delay its primary and not have to forgo sending delegates to the convention. The Republican National Convention was already scheduled for late August.

Earlier Wednesday, Bernie Sanders announced he was suspending his presidential campaign, ceding the Democratic nomination to Joe Biden after a string of losses last month crippled his campaign.