GOP suit claims NJ overseas voting law is unconstitutional

A GOP congressional candidate and state and national Republican committees are seeking to overturn a 2022 law that allows citizen children born abroad to New Jerseyans to vote in the state’s federal elections.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Mercer County Superior Court, Michael McGuire, who is running for the 3rd District House seat, and the RNC alleged the law runs afoul of provisions in New Jersey’s Constitution that require residents live in their state and county for 30 days to be eligible to vote there.

“Democrats are allowing certain people who have never lived in New Jersey to vote in the state’s elections,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “The RNC is taking them to court to stop this unconstitutional scheme, protect lawful voters, and secure New Jersey elections.”

Despite the limit in New Jersey’s Constitution, federal law allows some U.S. citizens living overseas to vote in American elections, and those laws take precedence because the U.S. Constitution gives Congress ultimate oversight of federal U.S. Elections.

The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act allows Americans living abroad to vote in federal U.S. elections if they would be eligible to do so in the last state they lived in before departing the country.

New Jersey law enacted in 2022 appears to go a little further, allowing U.S. citizens born abroad to vote in federal elections if their parent, guardian, spouse, or partner would have last been eligible to vote in New Jersey before departing the country and has not registered to vote elsewhere.

In some cases, that law extends suffrage to citizens who have never been to the state.

New Jersey officials signaled they would fight the suit.

“The right to vote is sacred, and Governor Sherrill and Attorney General Davenport will continue to ensure that eligible military and overseas voters are able to cast their ballots in our state’s elections,” said Michael Symons, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office. “We look forward to responding to this lawsuit in court.”

A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of State, which oversees elections here, declined to comment on pending litigation.

Republicans have filed similar suits in at least seven other states — Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, Virginia, Nebraska, Colorado, and Nevada.

It’s not clear how many U.S. citizens might lose the ability to vote in New Jersey elections if the suit is successful. 

The suit comes amid the Trump administration’s broader assault on election administration and infrastructure.

Among numerous other things, the administration has sought to force states to turn over voter lists and sought to place new restrictions on mail voting.

Most recently, the administration has sought to block counterterrorism and other grant funding to states who don’t accede to Trump’s demands, which include ordering states to use a federal system a judge has already ruled unlawful.

On Thursday, Trump fired or pushed out the last three members of the federal Election Assistance Commission, leaving the body, which tests and certifies voting systems and aids state election administrators, unable to act just months ahead of the 2028 midterms.

The executive branch has no constitutional role in administering elections, and courts have routinely slapped aside Trump’s efforts to unilaterally impose new rules on voting.