NEW JERSEY — State Senate Republican Leader Anthony M. Bucco is renewing his call for a bipartisan legislative committee with subpoena power to investigate issues involving New Jersey’s voter registration system.
Bucco, R-Morris and Passaic, issued the statement after the Sherrill administration provided county election officials with an update regarding voter registration issues and plans to shut down the system to review voter rolls.
“While there is optimism in the administration finally taking steps to address this voter registration disaster, shutting down the system to ‘clean up’ the voter rolls doesn’t answer the many serious questions that remain. Why is the review limited to just a two-year period, and how can anyone say with confidence that only 6,600 non-citizens were improperly registered?
“We’ve heard from county election officials that this problem extends well beyond the MVC, with non-citizens reportedly registering, and voting, through other registration methods. Ocean County identified more than 100 voters who were removed from the rolls after the statewide system came back online because they were flagged as non-citizens, including 12 who had voted. It is my understanding that some of those individuals were not registered through the MVC but instead used paper registration forms or other methods. Whether the Governor knows it or not, this issue appears to run much deeper than the administration has acknowledged. The only way to restore public confidence is with a bipartisan Select Committee with subpoena power to uncover the full truth and provide the transparency and accountability New Jersey voters deserve.”
Bucco and state Sen. Kristin Corrado, R-Bergen, Essex and Passaic, announced plans last month to introduce legislation in response to the reported registration of at least 6,600 noncitizens, which they said resulted in hundreds of noncitizens voting illegally.
The proposed legislation would eliminate automatic voter registration at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, establish voter identification requirements for future elections and require regular independent audits of the state’s voter rolls.
