New Jersey County With History of Voter Fraud Could Face DOJ Scrutiny
The Daily Signal 10/20/2025 2:30:00 PM
 

In the midst of the governor’s race, the New Jersey Republican Party is asking the U.S. Justice Department to send federal monitors to watch the vote counting in a Democrat-run county that has blocked security cameras at ballot storage locations.  

President Donald Trump was the first Republican to carry the Democrat-leaning Passaic County in a presidential race since 1992, though Democrat Kamala Harris carried the state in a surprisingly close contest in the blue state. 

“Today the NJGOP formally demanded the Department of Justice’s Division of Civil Rights send monitors to oversee the vote-by-mail counting process conducted by the Passaic County Board of Elections,” the state Republican Party announced in a post on X. “When officials resist transparency, it raises serious questions about what they are trying to hide.”

The state made the complaint to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, who has sued other states and jurisdictions regarding election integrity matters. 

Passaic County Board of Elections Chairman John Currie is also the chairman of the Passaic County Democratic Party. 

The Daily Signal contacted the Passaic County office of Board of Election Commissioners and the Passaic County Democratic Party. Neither replied to phone and email inquiries. 

The state GOP weighed in on the matter in the county over the weekend. 

“The decision by Democratic members of the Passaic County Board of Elections to block the use of security cameras in ballot storage areas and their refusal to require a sign-in/out log for anyone accessing mail-in ballots is alarming,” New Jersey Republican Party Chairman Glenn Paulsen said in a statement on Saturday. “The fact that the [Bureau of Election]’s Chairman also happens to be the County Democratic Chairman makes it even worse.”

Passaic County, as noted in my book, “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” has faced voter fraud prosecutions in recent years, primarily with state charges against members of the Paterson, New Jersey City Council. 

“In recent years, Passaic County has been home to infamous voter fraud schemes and among the slowest counties to count ballots and certify elections in the entire state,” Paulsen added on Saturday. “Frankly, given that, the Passaic County Republican Party is justified in their suspicion about what happens outside of public view, and the NJGOP stands firmly behind their legal demands for election integrity and transparency.”

Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill are facing off in the New Jersey governor’s race. 

In May 2020, state investigators uncovered alleged mail-in ballot irregularities and charged two city council members and several associates with election fraud, unauthorized ballot possession, forgery, and tampering with public records. State prosecutors alleged unsealed ballots were collected and altered and 3,190 out of 16,747 ballots cast were disqualified, prompting a judge to order a new election in November 2020. 

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story. But the department typically does not comment on investigations.

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