NJGOP, RNC Sue to Strike Down New Jersey's 'Never-Resident' Voter Law
Republicans' third legal front over New Jersey's voter rolls in a year targets a law letting people who never lived in the state vote here.
COLTS NECK — The New Jersey Republican Party and the Republican National Committee filed suit Thursday against state election officials, asking a court to strike down a New Jersey law that permits certain people who have never lived in the state — and in some cases have never lived in the United States — to register and vote in New Jersey elections.
The challenge, announced by the NJGOP, takes aim at provisions of the state’s Overseas Residents Absentee Voting Law that extend voting eligibility to individuals based solely on a relative’s prior New Jersey residency. Joining the two party committees as a plaintiff is Michael McGuire, the Republican candidate challenging Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delanco) in the 3rd Congressional District, according to the New Jersey Globe.
The plaintiffs argue the Legislature exceeded its constitutional authority when it extended the franchise beyond the New Jersey Constitution’s requirement that voters reside in the state for at least 30 days before an election. The complaint contends that while federal law — the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act — protects military personnel and Americans abroad who previously lived in a state, it does not obligate states to enfranchise citizens who never established residency at all.
The suit was filed Thursday in Mercer County Superior Court and names the New Jersey Department of State, the Division of Elections, Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, and Mercer County Superintendent of Elections Walker Worthy Jr. as defendants. Attorney Jason Sena is representing the state and national party committees.
“Vote dilution is a Constitutional injury of the highest magnitude,” Sena wrote in the complaint.
“Democrats are allowing certain people who have never lived in New Jersey to vote in the state’s elections,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement announcing the litigation. “The RNC is taking them to court to stop this unconstitutional scheme, protect lawful voters, and secure New Jersey elections.”
McGuire, a Marine Corps veteran, framed his role in the case in personal terms in a statement posted to Facebook on Thursday.
“I’m proud to be one of the lead plaintiffs in this fight,” McGuire said. “This is about protecting your vote. Every New Jerseyan deserves to know their voice counts and isn’t being diluted by non-residents. We’re standing up to defend election integrity for our state.”
The suit asks a judge to declare the challenged provisions unconstitutional, bar election officials from registering future “never-resident” voters, remove those already registered under the law from the rolls, and exclude ballots cast by those voters from future counts. The plaintiffs are also seeking revisions to the state’s voter registration forms and guidance to reflect the residency requirement.
The parties emphasized that the challenge does not affect military members or overseas voters who previously lived in New Jersey; both groups remain eligible to vote under existing state and federal law.
A WIDENING LEGAL CAMPAIGN
Thursday’s filing is the latest — and most aggressive — move in a sustained Republican push on New Jersey’s voter rolls that has been building for more than a year.
In June, the NJGOP and RNC released the findings of a records sweep of all 21 county election offices, reporting what the party said were hundreds of noncitizen registrants statewide — including individuals seeking naturalization who asked county officials to remove them from the rolls, saying they had been registered without their knowledge — along with at least 30 documented cases the party says show noncitizens actually casting ballots. In Atlantic County, the superintendent of elections certified in official letters that noncitizens had come forward requesting removal.
“This may be one of the most significant election-integrity issues in New Jersey history,” NJGOP Chairwoman Christine Giordano Hanlon said in June of this year when the findings were released. “Not only do county-level records show that hundreds of non-citizens were placed on New Jersey’s voter rolls, but additional documentation indicates multiple cases of non-citizens casting ballots in multiple elections.”
Hanlon, who launched the party’s Election Integrity Task Force in May, called the June findings “just the tip of the iceberg” and pointed to the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission registration pipeline as the apparent vulnerability, arguing New Jersey has no reliable process to identify noncitizens who end up on the rolls. A spokesperson for the Division of Elections said at the time that all fraud allegations brought to the division’s attention are referred to the appropriate authorities for investigation, the New Jersey Globe reported.
That effort landed weeks after federal prosecutors in New Jersey announced charges in May against four resident aliens for alleged illegal voting in federal elections and alleged false statements — enforcement actions the party has pointed to as evidence that the registration failures it identified are more than clerical.
The litigation track itself is not new. The RNC sued in state Superior Court in July 2025 over what it called slow-walked public records requests concerning voting machines and list maintenance, then escalated to federal court in November under the National Voter Registration Act, alleging the Secretary of State’s office had failed to produce a single document describing its list-maintenance program.
Nationally, Republicans have framed the New Jersey case as part of a broader eligibility strategy, citing a court victory in North Carolina over non-resident voting and pending challenges to similar laws in Nebraska, Colorado, and Nevada.
Neither Caldwell’s office nor the Department of State had responded to the complaint as of Friday. In prior litigation, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s office declined to comment on pending suits.
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