The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced last night that it will wade into the murky waters of New Jersey elections administration, launching a lawsuit against the state Division of Elections’ “voter roll maintenance and election integrity.”
“The people of New Jersey deserve to have transparency and accountability in their elections,” RNC Chair Michael Whatley said in a statement. “State officials are slow walking access to records about voting machines and voter roll maintenance. The RNC is taking legal action because the people of New Jersey have a right to know that their elections are being run fairly, securely, and in full compliance with the law.”
The RNC said that, earlier this month, it requested information from the Division of Elections on the state’s voter rolls and data from voting machines used in the June primary elections. In its lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court, it alleges that the state failed to provide it with the requisite information under the state Open Public Records Act.
The RNC also said that it has requested the U.S. Department of Justice investigate whether the Secretary of State violated the National Voter Registration Act by not providing certain records.
A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of State, which oversees the Division of Elections, declined to comment.
This isn’t the first time in recent years that national Republicans have sued New Jersey election officials; in 2022, the RNC successfully sued Mercer County over the release of information on ballot cure letters from the 2021 general election.
