RNC sues New Jersey for voter records again after earlier case was tossed

The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a new federal lawsuit against New Jersey Tuesday, again seeking voter roll records and just two months after a judge dismissed its previous case for lack of standing.

The RNC, New Jersey Republican Party, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.) and state Sen. Anthony Bucco sued Secretary of State Dale Caldwell (D) and election officials in Bergen, Middlesex, Hudson, Union and Somerset counties, seeking a court order compelling them to turn over records about how the state maintains its voter rolls.

Essex County, which received the same request, is not named because it agreed to produce the requested records, according to the complaint. 

The lawsuit follows New Jersey’s disclosure this summer that a Motor Vehicle Commission software failure erroneously registered roughly 6,600 people who had indicated they were not U.S. citizens.

Fewer than 400 affected people subsequently voted, according to state officials, who have said there is no evidence that the error was caused by organized voter fraud or changed an election result. 

Republicans have since used the incident to press for broader access to New Jersey’s voter list maintenance records

The latest lawsuit seeks records dating back to January 2023, including information about voters removed or placed on inactive status, communications with the MVC and other agencies, use of the federal SAVE database and records identifying people removed because they were noncitizens. 

The RNC alleges that state and county officials either refused to produce categories of records, supplied incomplete information or failed to respond before a Sept. 15 statutory deadline. Middlesex County, according to the complaint, produced no records at all. 

New Jersey did produce two statewide lists on the final day of the cure period, but the RNC argues they omitted information it requested, including the reasons voters were removed from the rolls.

The new complaint also appears designed to confront the defect that doomed the RNC’s previous lawsuit.

In July, U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner dismissed an earlier RNC records challenge after finding the committee had not alleged concrete plans showing how the withheld information impaired its voter-participation activities. 

This time, the RNC devotes several pages to alleging specific financial and electoral harms. It says it relies on New Jersey voter files to register and contact voters and that inaccurate records waste campaign resources.

“Every contact wasted on a nonexistent, relocated, deceased, or otherwise ineligible registrant is a contact not made to an eligible, unregistered citizen or a low-propensity voter,” the complaint says. It argues inaccurate rolls therefore “injure the RNC twice over” by impairing its political work and consuming limited resources. 

Whether those new allegations are enough to establish standing will now be tested in federal court.

The lawsuit is being handled in part by Dhillon Law Group, the firm founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who now leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. DOJ has separately pursued its own effort to obtain New Jersey voter data; that case was dismissed in July and is now on appeal.