Trump DOJ cites New Jersey registration error to renew demand for statewide private voter data

The Trump Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a federal probe Tuesday into New Jersey’s voter registration software failure and said it will use the disclosure as “an additional basis” to demand the state’s unredacted voter rolls, including sensitive data.

In a letter to New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D), Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon gave the state five business days to provide extensive personal information about roughly 6,600 people who were improperly registered after telling the Motor Vehicle Commission they were not U.S. citizens.

DOJ requested their full names, dates of birth, nationalities, residential addresses and registration dates and locations. For the fewer than 400 affected people who subsequently voted, the department also demanded information about when and where they voted, along with certifications and signatures attached to any mail-in ballots.

The known New Jersey failure involved a specific software defect that allegedly disregarded applicants’ answers. DOJ did not explained how federal possession of sensitive information belonging to millions of eligible voters would have prevented that error.

Dhillon also said DOJ will notify the federal court hearing its pending lawsuit against New Jersey of the disclosure. The department claims the incident provides further support for its attempt to obtain an electronic copy of the state’s entire voter registration list.

But DOJ’s nationwide voter roll campaign has been rejected repeatedly in court. The department has lost 16 straight district court cases and its first appeal, with no judge ordering a state to surrender its unredacted statewide voter file.

Still, the department directed New Jersey to preserve all records related to the state’s disclosure.

“Ensuring that U.S. citizens’ votes are not illegally diluted by noncitizens’ votes is of paramount importance,” Dhillon wrote. “We therefore write to formally request additional information to assess New Jersey’s compliance with various federal statutes.”

Sherrill said Tuesday that officials currently have no evidence that the error changed the result of any election. The state’s preliminary investigation found that the affected people were registered across party affiliations, with most unaffiliated, and were scattered throughout New Jersey.