A federal judge in New Jersey barred the Justice Department from obtaining the state’s unredacted voter rolls, citing privacy concerns and rejecting the administration’s reading of federal law; the decision lands amid a separate controversy over mistaken noncitizen registrations and wider worries about how voter and state databases are handled.
District Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee, ruled this week that turning over the full voter registration list would raise privacy issues for individual voters and therefore cannot proceed. For Republicans watching the federal government push for access to state records, the ruling is another check on what they see as overreach by the Justice Department in election matters.
The DOJ had argued Title III of the Civil Rights Act gave it the right to inspect state voter lists in full, but Judge Quraishi disagreed with that interpretation. “The plain text of Title III applies only to records ‘which come into’ election officers’ ‘possession’ and thus does not extend to New Jersey’s computerized VRL [voter registration list] – a document the State itself created,” Quraishi wrote.
This decision follows a string of suits the administration filed earlier in the year against multiple states, including Utah, Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia, and New Jersey. Those actions were framed by the DOJ as efforts to enforce federal voting law, but critics argue they ignore states’ traditional role in running elections and risk exposing private voter data.
The timing of the court decision intersects with a separate scandal in New Jersey involving the motor vehicle registration system and the accidental registration of noncitizens. Gov. Mikie Sherrill acknowledged a “serious software error” that resulted in roughly 6,600 noncitizens being added to the voter rolls, and the vendor involved denied any wrongdoing.
Sherrill quickly ordered an investigation and the state Division of Elections began removing ineligible names from its lists, saying fewer than 400 of those mistakenly registered cast ballots. For Republicans, the episode reinforced long-standing concerns about the integrity of voter databases and the need for stronger checks on how state systems verify citizenship and eligibility.
Reports also surfaced that about 75,000 noncitizens had been summoned for jury duty through various state databases, widening the controversy beyond the motor vehicle error. That revelation prompted renewed calls from Republican officials for a full audit of state record-keeping, more aggressive verification mechanisms, and accountability for the contractors and agencies that handle sensitive data.
“In New Jersey, we absolutely need to have accountability for what happened,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said of the incident. “It was just horrible. There was a big problem with that computer problem that they had. We need to try to address that going forward.”
From a Republican perspective, the judge’s ruling is a welcome defense of voter privacy and state authority, but it does not let state leaders off the hook for sloppy systems that invite public distrust. Lawmakers and election officials should move quickly to tighten identity verification, audit past activity, and make state databases resistant to both accidental errors and potential misuse.
Graduate Student, wife, engaged political and legal writer.