Civics: “‘It’s the honor system’: New Jersey’s noncitizen voter registration brings private worries into the open”
Another Democratic operative, granted anonymity for the same reason, said they spoke to three county superintendents who all told them the same thing: “When they see [registrations] come from the MVC, they assume it’s correct.”
Sherrill on Tuesday refused a Trump administration demand to turn over the list of 6,600 noncitizen registrants, and said the state had struck 4,500 of them from the rolls. The other 2,100, she said, had been referred back to county election officials for further examination because some may have been misidentified as noncitizens.
“The request had no legal basis, and I will always protect New Jerseyans’ personally identifiable information,” she said.
Sherrill’s disclosure also played into a lawsuit by the Trump administration that sought access to New Jersey’s unredacted voter registration list, with the Trump administration arguing it strengthened its case. But District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi dismissed the lawsuit Wednesday, saying that “whether the DOJ is acting in good faith is not relevant to this Court’s analysis and has no bearing on whether Plaintiff is entitled to the information it seeks.”
Thompson, the elections administrator, said county elections officials check each registration against a state database using Social Security numbers or driver’s license numbers to confirm their identity, and that the information doesn’t belong to people who have died. But noncitizens can obtain both forms of identification. “It does not validate any kind of citizenship,” Thompsonsaid.
