Despite continued and unsubstantiated claims by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that the U.S. voting system is "rigged," New Jersey election officials insist they have not seen any evidence of voter fraud.

While the responsibility to ensure a fair election process lies primarily at the state and local levels, we now get word the FBI is partnering with state officials to prevent any election problems.

“The FBI is ready to identify, initiate and investigate a variety of federal related election crimes, such as voter and ballot fraud, civil rights violations and campaign finance crimes," said Michael Brodack, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Newark Division.

He said an example of voter and ballot fraud is “when voting is done by ineligible people such as non U.S. citizens or convicted felons, or when a voter receives money or something of value in exchange for voting or registering to vote.”

An example of civil rights violations is when a voter is threatened in order to vote or not vote a certain way.

“It can also be when someone tries to prevent voters from casting a ballot by deceiving them as to the time and place of an election,” Brodack said.

An example of campaign finance crime “is when a person gives more than the specified amount of money or things of value to a federal candidate. Currently the individual donor limit is $2,700 per candidate per election.”

He said another example of a campaign finance crime is when a foreign individual or entity contributes to any federal, state or local candidate.

Brodack says this is a top priority because New Jersey residents “expect fair, open and honest elections. A confident public is more likely to vote and trust the outcome of the election.”

He also said the FBI wants to hear from you if you even think you have information about voter fraud.

“We need the public’s help. We ask the people of New Jersey to call the FBI Newark if they see, suspect or know about election crime at 973-792-3000. And if people don’t want to leave their name they can leave an anonymous tip,” he said.

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com.

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