Federal judge denies DOJ request for New Jersey voter registration data
A New Jersey district judge ruled that the Justice Department cannot obtain the state's unredacted voter registration list, finding that Title III of the Civil Rights Act does not apply to the computerized database.
A federal district judge in New Jersey issued an order on Wednesday preventing the Justice Department from accessing the state's unredacted voter registration list. Judge Zahid Quraishi, appointed by Biden, concluded that providing the records could raise privacy concerns for voters and that Title III of the Civil Rights Act applies only to records that come into an election official’s possession, not to the state-created computerized voter registration list.
The decision follows a series of lawsuits filed earlier this year in which the DOJ sought voter-roll data from Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey, arguing that the civil-rights statute granted federal access. Quraishi’s ruling rejects that interpretation for New Jersey.
The case coincides with ongoing scrutiny of New Jersey’s voter-registration system after the governor acknowledged a software error that mistakenly registered about 6,600 noncitizens through the state’s motor-vehicle database. State officials said the Division of Elections is removing ineligible entries and that fewer than 400 of those individuals voted.
Senator Andy Kim called for accountability regarding the registration error, describing the incident as “horrible.” The governor said an investigation was launched promptly after the mistake was discovered. Separate reports have indicated that approximately 75,000 noncitizens may have been summoned for jury duty from state databases, prompting additional calls for investigation.