Judge Won’t Let DOJ Obtain Unredacted New Jersey Voter Rolls
The decision comes after Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced the state discovered over 6,000 noncitizens registered to vote due to a supposed software error.
U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi rejected the Department of Justice’s request to obtain New Jersey’s unredacted voter rolls.
The decision comes after Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced the state discovered over 6,000 noncitizens registered to vote due to a supposed software error.
The DOJ requested the voter rolls last July as the Trump administration continues to try to secure elections.
The department sued New Jersey in February under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.
Title III requires election officials to preserve federal election records for 22 months and make them available to the attorney general.
Quraishi agreed with New Jersey’s argument that Title III’s scope “does not extend to New Jersey’s computerized VRL [voter registration list] – a document the State itself created.”
The judge noted that the “VRL is not a static ‘compilation’ of information from voter registration applications, but rather, is a ‘live, dynamic database’ that includes information from other state agencies and is altered by state officials.”
“The records to which the DOJ has access under Title III are necessarily those that the State may not otherwise modify, like the records of voter registration it receives,” concluded Quraishi. “However, the VRL must be modified regularly as a matter of federal election law.”
Department of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said that four states had noncitizens on their voter rolls.
The preliminary findings indicated New Jersey has 15,903 noncitizens on its rolls.
The DOJ already opened an investigation into the 6,600 noncitizen registered voters and the 400 who voted in elections.
Sherrill said the DOJ lacks a “legal basis” to request “extensive personal information about thousands of New Jersey residents.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division warned Sherrill the fight isn’t over.
All you are protecting here is illegitimate voters who cancelled out the votes of your own state’s citizens, in violation of federal law. Whose side are you on, Governor? And how big is this problem, really?
Stay tuned. This isn’t over. https://t.co/BSnk8k58ZV
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) July 29, 2026
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Comments
It’s New Jersey, arguably the most corrupt state in the Union.
Full disclosure: I lived in Orange County NY for almost sixteen years. OC shares a border with NJ.
“It’s New Jersey, arguably the most corrupt state in the Union.”
No argument there.
Illinois…
I would accept that challenge for a counter argument and proffer Massachusetts, my former home and place of birth.
The brother of the then President of the State Senate, William Bulger, was a notorious mobster and topped the FBI’s most wanted list for many years, and that’s just scratching the surface.
Your turn….
He was also a FBI informant but it seems his FBI agent was controlled by him and ended up going to jail. There was a third brother who worked in the state house for years. I think he ended up in jail too.
John “Zip” Connolly was the FBI agent. Boston radio legend Howie Carr speaks about Bulger and the Winter Hill gang a lot, even wrote a few books. There was a point, I forget the dates, when Bulger wanted Carr killed because of his radio commentary on Bulger’s gang.
Anyway….
“ Judge Zahid Quraishi ”
That’s why. It’s immigrants vs the rest of us
Yup – the name says it all.
Zahid Quraishi. Good American name, and I guessed right – Appointed by Auto-Pen/Potatobrain.
He’s a muslim. An autopen nominee.
He’s not an immigrant.
And the constitution specifically forbids any religious test for office.
Unless it betrays oath of office, which this voter fraud authorization clearly does.
No, it doesn’t betray any oath. This is how he reads the law. Do you read it differently?! Even if you do, which I doubt, the constitution says his understanding trumps yours.
Milhouse….not in this case…. but Islam is at permanent loggerheads with the West and the single most important point is that they are religiously bound to defeat it by any means. There is no religious litmus test but that doesn’t mean any interpretation by a Islamic believer isn’t interpreted to the goal of Islam. By the way, how would you have voted in that room in Philadelphia on July 2, 1776… since everyone there was in an act of rebellion and all traitors to the Crown and the Crown’s laws?
Milhouse – what you speak of is the LAW. However, I proffer a counter argument based on politics which says that a religious test is exactly why he was chosen for a federal judgeship. As we all know from experience politics trumps law quite often, especially when you can create enough judges of your particular political bent.
I actually looked this clown up. He is native born. He’s also a Biden judge, which, these days, pretty much explains everything.
My FIRST thought when reading – WHAT “judge” and then Zahid! Now there’s an All American name! We have way too many of these FOREIGNERS (and I don’t care if they are born here from immigrants) who seek to undermine Our Nation! The greatest WEAPON the Enemies of the USA have found is the DEMOcrat party!
If there is no problem why hide anything.
They are hiding the list of names because there IS a problem.
DING DING DING
They are not hiding any names. They gave the feds their Voter Registration List, which includes voters’ names, but they redacted the drivers’ licenses and last four digits of the SSNs. NJ calls this “confidential personally identifiable information”, which is protected by the federal Privacy Act (5 USC 552 et seq), and refuses to give it, so the feds sued.
Federal privacy act doesn’t constrain the government, only private businesses.
Do what? Nah man as a routine matter the Privacy absolutely does constrain the Federal Government and State Gov’t. They gotta work to follow all the nitpicking rules (in fairness which exist to prohibit disclosure to unauthorized personal or theft.
What NJ is arguing is bogus. The Feds absolutely have a legitimate interest to see at least some of the data being withheld; SSA # and DL/ID # in particular. I’d argue physical address as well. All three of those are routinely handed over to Federal agencies and to tell the Feds they can’t have SSA # which are generated by Feds or physical address which is part of 911 address system and very often Postal service is ludicrous.
Chief, it may be ludicrous, but Title 3 doesn’t require them to give it.
Maybe but ….the NJ claims that they can’t turn over PII to Feds for a legitimate purpose b/c the Privacy Act prohibits it is bogus. That’s what I’m arguing here.
Chief, they’re using the Privacy Act as an excuse, but it’s a valid excuse. (I first wrote “legitimate”, but of course it isn’t. It’s technically valid, but that’s all.)
If they wanted to give it they would, and the Privacy Act wouldn’t bother them. But since they want to screw with Trump, and to give him only the bare minimum that the law requires, they found this excuse.
The real point here is that the DOJ needs this information because it’s the only way to prove that someone on the roll is ineligible. All the other information can give you a very good idea, but it’s not actual proof. When the DOJ says it’s identified so many aliens on the list, it’s making a very educated guess, but not something it can take into court. Now it wants the evidence that it needs in order to do something about it, and the state is resisting.
Milhouse,
To argue that NJ hanging their hat on Privacy Act concerns re SSA# and DL# to avoid handing over data to Feds is somehow legit/good faith is ludicrous. Both of those (in full not partials) are already routinely handed over by NJ to Federal LEO agencies. Heck the SSA# originated from the Feds. To suddenly claim ‘we can’t give the info in the specific situation of voter registration rolls so the Feds can meet their obligations to ensure the State is maintaining accurate voter registration rolls’ is specious. I’d argue the incomplete data (evidence) turned over should be viewed as a form of spoilation.
You are entirely correct that NJ wants to avoid handing over a data set of voter registration rolls that would be transparent and easily searchable/comparable to other federal databases. Hanging their hat on PII in this set of circumstances is ludicrous.
Arguably, that’s the same reasoning used to push through things like the Patriot Act and Flock cameras.
The argument they’re making is that there is a bunch of information included in the VRL that is not pertinent to Title III and would violate their citizens’ privacy rights to hand it over to the feds.
I would ask why the heck the STATE has that information on their lists if it compromises their citizens’ privacy rights. They are voter rolls, so the feds should be able to see the same data the state does, as the reason for the data is identical.
Except, of course, the purpose of that data at the state is NOT the same, since the state isn’t really interested in clean elections and verification of voter identity.
The Privacy Act doesn’t stop the government collecting confidential information, it stops it from revealing that information to third parties. If the state trusts the federal government, it can give it the information. But it’s saying that it doesn’t trust this administration, so it’s refusing to compromise these people’s privacy. It’s entirely political, but it’s a legally valid argument. This judge bought it; let’s see whether an appeals court will do the same.
And that “Trust” is that they TRUST “this administration” to ID the ILLEGALS and DEAD from NJ’s Voter Registration list and reduce the ability for the DEMOcrats to MANUFACTURE “votes”! They don’t need those “registered” to actually vote! They need the NUMBER of “registered” to be high enough that they can manufacture the votes needed – NEEDED – and not be way too obvious! Odd that using “they don’t trust this administration” is a basis for their dishonesty! Oh, but then that would be HYPOCRISY – and that should be the Official Name of the Leftists – the HYPOCRITE party!
Always you defend Democrat and leftist illegality.
The state (New Jersey) for the purposes of the Privacy Act trusts the Federal government. By law.
The Privacy Act does not give the states discretion to give or withhold information on party grounds. Nor on the grounds that they don’t like a particular administration.
Their discretionary freedom is limited to procedural security methods that apply to third parties. For the purposes of the act the fed and the states are the first party.
Stop pretending to understand law, Democrat. Just admit your partisan biases.
Oh well, since NJ doesn’t want to share with the Feds to find/eliminate mistakes,.errors and omissions we can’t trust that NJ real ID is accurate much less standard DL or CDL …so DoJ and Homeland should block use of NJ DL and NJ ID for any Federal purpose …such as clearing TSA, boarding Amtrak or as a valid ID to apply for/renew a Passport, invalid for SSA and all other Federal program applications. Not even valid at the Post Office. DoT can notify Shipping Companies/Brokers and Insurers that no NJ CDL is valid outside NJ. Same for Financial institutions, gotta lock down those accounts which can’t be validated by another acceptable ID to meet the ‘know your customer rules’.
Probably far less fuss and bother for NJ to simply cooperate with th Feds but since they insist on a policy of non cooperative they can’t whine when their choice is met with reciprocity. Their choice and their consequences.
You and I “think outside the box.”
You stole my train of thought as I was scrolling through the comments. Hit em where it hurts. Force the residents to only use a passport to board for air and rail travel.
Voter registrations are public records. Anyone can demand a copy of any voter registration. I’ve done it myself and received registrations in response to my requests.
If they’re public records, why can’t the local Republican Party request them, and then turn them over to the administration? Even if you don’t know the names of all the voters (very likely), records could be requested by addresses.* Various databases could easily make such lists. In fact, draw up one list of residential addresses and another of non-residential addresses and make separate submissions for the registrations associated with the addresses on both lists. It would be interesting to see how many registered voters there are at the latter addresses.
*This would reveal if there are multiple registered voters at any particular address.
The public information, though, is only a subset of the “unredacted VRL.” At least, that’s NJ’s argument.
I’m curious why the DoJ doesn’t ask for a limited set of the data? “Give us these 50 data fields in the database.” Figure out the database construction, write an exact query, and demand they run that. And stand at their shoulder while they run it. You can figure out the database construction without seeing the actual data. Unless, of course, someone programmed it to be intentionally obscure – in which case, you’d have the right to demand an unredacted dump of the whole damn thing.
They gave the feds the VRL, with those two fields redacted.
Biden* judge.
So, what we have here is that we know a crime was committed and we have a judge telling the Department of Justice that they are not allowed to investigate that crime. Anybody else see a problem here?
What crime? No crime was committed, and NJ handed over the VRL without protest, but with two fields redacted. The voter’s drivers’ license number, and the last 4 digits of their SSN. The feds are suing for those two fields.
400 ineligible voters voted.
That’s a crime.
No, it isn’t. They voted in good faith, having been notified by the government that they were registered despite their having told the truth in every respect; how were they to know that they were ineligible?
Even people who lie on the registration form, and swear they’re citizens when they’re not, are usually not convicted because they claim not to have understood what they were signing. Someone filled it in for them and told them to sign, and they didn’t know what it said because no habla ingles. Perjury requires specific intent, which the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt, and how do you do that?
These people didn’t lie, so they’re in an even better position than those that did.
It’s “thinking” like yours that make undoing the corruption in this country virtually impossible. Repugnant is what.
Isfoss, the law is the law, and if you deliberately violate it in the name of fighting corruption then you are the corrupt one.
The requirement for proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt is the bulwark of our liberty. Without it none of us are safe. You could easily be convicted of hundreds of crimes, if not for this requirement. So attacking it is repugnant.
And intent is a fundamental element of perjury. If you didn’t know you were swearing falsely then you haven’t committed the crime and aren’t guilty. So to convict you the prosecution has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you did know. Obviously that’s difficult to do, when dealing with someone who either actually does no habla ingles, or can half-convincingly play the part.
So going by your “in good faith” argument you’d say it’s ok for someone to rob a bank because someone said they could? That’s absurd – just as absurd as an ILLEGAL voting because they were registered to vote! BUT, just to make sure none of these innocent “visitors” run afoul of the law, wouldn’t it be HELPFUL for someone to be present at every polling place to inform those “misguided souls” that they just can’t vote because they’re registered? I think that would be the nicest way to help them avoid committing ANOTHER crime! And I think you’ll agree that entering the USA without permission or overstaying permission is indeed a CRIME!
How do you know they ‘voted in good faith’, Democrat?
If they voted at any time in the past ten years, with all the talk of illegal alien voting on ALL news outlets in ALL languages there is no way that people who knew they were not citizens voted ‘in good faith’.
Of course, you ARE a Democrat. You think black people are too stupid to get an ID even though they use IDs for so many things besides voting.
Where do they get the IDs they use for everything else, Democrat? Are those driver’s licenses and RealIDs magically different?
Looking at the law in question, the judge appears to be correct that the dynamic registration list is not a “record or paper […[ relating to any application, registration, payment of poll tax, or other act requisite to voting in such election”.
As the judge correctly pointed out, the next section prohibits altering “any record or paper required by section 20701 of this title to be retained and preserved”. Therefore it cannot possibly be referring to the VRL, which is routinely being altered all the time, and which has to be altered.
The law refers only to the actual registration applications, etc., that the voters submitted, which must be preserved for 22 months without any alteration. The AG can have those any time he wants them.
The state did submit the entire VRL, but with two fields redacted.
If we don’t get democrats, socialists, commies and other anti-Americans replaced in the next 3 elections, starting this November, we are in deep, deep trouble.
It’s either civil war, or the end of the country. The US cannot survive the corruption, insanity, self-loathing plague of Democrats, invaders from 3rd world countries, Muslims, etc. etc.
Will the real Americans stand up and defend themselves?
WHY do the DEMOcrats push so hard to DISARM all of us?? THIS is the very reason! It’s mind blowing that Our Founding Fathers so long ago envisioned Our Nation’s success and the very likelihood of future DEMOcrats so they bestowed upon us that awesome SECOND AMENDMENT! Without that, we’d be worse than Europe since we have so much more to offer!
“US District Judge?” My a**.
Congress must pass law for all government positions and offices be held by American born of American born parents
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