The national debate over mail-in voting continues to rage, and will likely continue to simmer well beyond Election Day. While Democrats say that voting with a mail-in ballot is perfectly safe, Republicans led by President Trump are adamant that voting by mail is a recipe for disaster.

President Trump has alleged that mail-in voting is rife with fraud – a questionable claim – but also that there is no way to know if your vote was actually counted. And that concern is a valid one.

If you had any question whether the president is right or wrong to question whether all mail-in votes would be counted, look no further than New Jersey itself for a case in point.

On Monday, the Sussex County Board of Elections announced that they had discovered 1,666 mail-in ballots that went uncounted in the July 7th primary. The Board of Elections said it was not intentional and that it happened because they were placed in a bin that was mislabeled.

It wouldn’t be fair to question whether there was foul play involved in Sussex County. It could be there was, but let’s assume for a moment that it was a simple mistake. Even if it were no more than a mistake, this story should be of tremendous concern to anyone who wishes a free and fair election to take place in November.

Governor Murphy announced several weeks ago that New Jersey would be conducting a mostly vote-by-mail election this year, with mail-in ballots being sent to all registered voters in the state. Seeing what happened in Sussex County, is it so ridiculous to question whether our vote will actually be counted? The answer is no.