Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit seeking NJ voter data

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a Trump administration suit seeking New Jersey voters’ addresses, driver’s license numbers, birth dates, partial Social Security numbers, and a host of other private data.

District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi said a requirement in federal law that mandates election officials turn over some types of records to the federal Election Assistance Commission upon request does not extend to New Jersey’s digital voter registration system.

New Jersey’s computerized statewide voter list “is not a record or paper that the state must produce to the United States,” he wrote in a 17-page ruling.

Quraishi’s ruling comes about a week after Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced that about 6,600 individuals who marked themselves as noncitizens had been registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024, and approximately 400 of them went on to cast ballots. The news resulted in a fresh round of voter fraud complaints from Republicans in New Jersey and nationwide.

The federal government this week argued to Quraishi that the revelation bolstered its claims in the lawsuit, which it filed back in February. Quraishi acknowledged that argument but dismissed it in a footnote as irrelevant to the case.

“Whether DOJ is acting in good faith is not relevant to this court’s analysis and has no bearing on whether plaintiff is entitled to the information it seeks,” he wrote.

Quraishi, a Biden appointee, dismissed the case with prejudice, which bars the administration from refiling, though it can still appeal his ruling.

“We disagree with the court’s decision and will appeal,” a Department of Justice spokesperson said in an unsigned statement.

New Jersey Attorney General Jen Davenport said in a statement she is “grateful” for the ruling.

“Every court to consider the question, now totaling seventeen district courts and a federal court of appeals, have unanimously rejected this clear federal overreach. We will continue to act in accordance with federal and state law and protect New Jerseyans’ privacy and people’s personal information,” she wrote.

New Jersey previously provided the federal government a copy of its publicly available voter list, which does not include private information, but declined to share the full unredacted file.

Quraishi agreed with attorneys for New Jersey who argued a requirement in the law that mandates officials turn over all records that come into election officials’ possession does not extend to New Jersey’s digital voter registration system.

The federal law cited by the plaintiffs refers to documents like voter registration applications that the state cannot alter, not documents like New Jersey’s digital voter registration file, which the state creates and must change on a regular basis to make sure its information about voters is accurate, Quraishi wrote.

Quraishi’s ruling is the latest in a series of defeats in the Trump administration’s quest for sensitive voter data. At least 16 other district courts have shot down those requests, as has the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Sherrill has argued that providing the Trump administration with private voter data would allow it to target some voters.

“I’m not in the habit of turning over private identifying information of the citizens of New Jersey. This federal government is weaponizing the government against individuals that disagree with them,” she said Tuesday.