DOJ suffers setback in NJ voter roll lawsuit despite illegal registrants scandal
The Justice Department (DOJ) faced its 18th consecutive loss in a nationwide effort to access unredacted state voter rolls after a federal judge dismissed its lawsuit against New Jersey. The judge,Zahid Quraishi,granted the state’s motion to dismiss and denied the DOJ’s request to access the complete voter registration database,citing privacy concerns and legal conflicts. The case revolved around the DOJ’s attempt to obtain detailed voter information to scrutinize election records, which New Jersey argued was protected under state law. Despite a disclosure that recent software issues had led to roughly 6,600 noncitizens being added to voter rolls-with about 400 voting-the judge ruled that this did not necessitate surrendering the full voter list. The DOJ plans to appeal the ruling, continuing a legal battle over access to election data. The case highlights ongoing tensions between federal efforts to monitor voter registration and state protections of voter privacy.
The Justice Department suffered its 18th straight loss on Wednesday in its nationwide campaign to obtain unredacted state voter rolls, as a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration‘s lawsuit against New Jersey despite the state’s recent disclosure that thousands of noncitizens were illegally registered to vote.
U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, granted New Jersey’s motion to dismiss and denied the DOJ’s attempt to compel access to the state’s complete voter registration database, including voters’ driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
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The ruling leaves the DOJ with a losing record in district court cases seeking such data, in addition to an earlier appellate loss. The department said it would appeal immediately following the ruling.
“This Court … joins at least sixteen other district courts including a sister court — and one circuit — in dismissing Plaintiff’s claim,” Quraishi wrote in a 17-page decision. The judge decided the matter without oral argument.
The decision came just days after Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) disclosed that a Motor Vehicle Commission software failure caused roughly 6,600 noncitizens to be added to New Jersey’s voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024. About 400 of those people cast ballots in at least one subsequent election.
The revelation gave the DOJ fresh evidence of a serious breakdown in the state’s voter registration system. Yet Quraishi ruled that the registration error had “no bearing” on whether the DOJ could legally force New Jersey to surrender its live, unredacted voter database.
The DOJ first requested New Jersey’s full voter list in July last year as part of a broader effort to scrutinize election records nationwide. State officials provided a version of the rolls but withheld sensitive personal information, citing privacy concerns.
After months of negotiations, the DOJ sued in February under Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the department’s Civil Rights Division, said at the time that state election officials were choosing to fight the federal government “rather than show their work.”
Quraishi wrote that Title III applies only to records that “come into” election officials’ “possession,” not to “New Jersey’s computerized [voter registration list] — a document the State itself created.”
He said the DOJ’s position was “untenable” because the law requires covered records to be preserved without alteration, while other federal election laws require states to “continually” update their computerized voter lists. “Simply stated, this creates a conflict,” Quraishi wrote.
The ruling is another setback for the Trump administration’s effort to enforce federal voter list maintenance requirements under laws such as the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.
Marc Elias, the former lawyer for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said in a statement, “I’m still not tired of winning.” The Elias Law Group represents defendant-intervenors in the case.
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The litigation will continue despite the dismissal. The DOJ has opened a separate review into the 6,600 improper registrations and demanded identifying information about the affected registrants, including details about those who voted. Sherrill rejected that request Tuesday, calling it unsupported by law.
A DOJ spokesperson told the Washington Examiner, “We disagree with the court’s decision and will appeal.”
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