New Jersey Republicans asked for federal oversight from the Justice Department to ensure a fair count of votes in a pivotal county for the state’s heated gubernatorial race.
The New Jersey GOP requested that the DOJ dispatch election monitors to Passaic County in a letter sent to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. The NJ GOP asked for the monitors to oversee “the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and monitor “access to the [Passaic County] Board of Elections around the clock.”
The eyes of election forecasters are on Passaic County in this year’s heated gubernatorial race. The typically blue, diverse county with a large Hispanic population flipped for President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. Trump won the county with 49.8% of the vote to then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s 46.9%. In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden earned 57.7% of the county’s vote, compared to Trump’s 41.1%.
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The New Jersey GOP said the election monitors were needed in the county because of “a long and sordid history” of voter fraud, pointing to multiple indictments of local officials in the county on voter fraud-related charges.
“It is clear that the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is incapable of enforcing the law and protecting the integrity of elections in Passaic County,” counsel for New Jersey GOP Jason Sena wrote in the letter to Dhillon.
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office disagrees with the New Jersey GOP’s sentiment. Michael Zhadanovsky, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, told the Washington Examiner that the state is “committed to ensuring the integrity of our elections and protecting the right of every eligible voter to have their vote counted.”
“The Constitution gives states, not the federal government, the primary responsibility for running elections. It would be highly inappropriate for the federal government to interfere in this November’s state election. We will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that no voter is intimidated and that every eligible voter has their ballot counted on Election Day,” Zhadanovsky said.
The DOJ told the Washington Examiner, “The Justice Department is committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and is reviewing this request to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Republican Jack Ciattarelli will face off in the New Jersey gubernatorial election on Nov. 4.
Since 2019, Sherrill has served as a representative for New Jersey’s 11th District, which includes several municipalities in Passaic County, though it is centered in neighboring Morris County.
When Ciattarelli faced off against current Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) in the state’s 2021 governor race, Ciattarelli came up short but gave Murphy a run for his money in Passaic County. Murphy won the county with 51.5% in 2021, but the Republican businessman received 47.7% of the county’s vote. Ciattarelli lost to Murphy by about 3.2 points in the 2021 general election.
In comparison, the Republican candidate who ran against Murphy in 2017 without a Trump endorsement, Kim Guadagno, only received 38% of the vote in Passaic County. Murphy bested Guadagno, the lieutenant governor under former Gov. Chris Christie, in the general election with 56% of the vote to Guadagno’s 41.9%.
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Ciattarelli has a Trump endorsement.
The New Jersey Democratic State Committee referred the Washington Examiner to the Passaic County Board of Elections, which did not respond to requests for comment.