‘Threat to democracy’: Trump loyalist’s voter fraud crackdown alarms New Jersey civil rights groups

A new “election integrity task force” led by New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor — who is also a fierce Donald Trump loyalist — has rattled voting rights activists who worry the move will torpedo the public’s trust in the state electoral system.

Interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba has claimed the team of prosecutors, FBI agents, Department of Homeland Security members and others will “preserve and protect the integrity” of the vote by enforcing controversial directives the president detailed in a March executive order.

That includes purging voter rolls of “individuals who are not eligible to vote,” investigating alleged crimes such as “voting by noncitizens” or “individuals voting multiple times in the same election,” and complying with national voter list maintenance requirements, her office said in a statement last week.

“The Election Integrity Task Force will take all appropriate steps to achieve that integrity and will vigorously pursue anyone who violates or attempts to violate federal laws designed to safeguard elections,” Habba wrote.

But voting rights advocates immediately cried foul and said the issues the unit seeks to remedy don’t actually exist.

“This task force is not aimed at a real problem,” Liza Weisberg, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of New Jersey, told The Jersey Vindicator on Monday. “There is extensive research and evidence that shows noncitizen voting simply isn’t a thing — it’s not something that compromises the security of elections.”

“This rhetoric is premised on racist and nativist ideas about who’s voting and how,” Weisberg said. “The danger is that it stokes fear and prejudice … I don’t see a way this task force … has much promise in making our elections better. More than anything, it’s a threat.”

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The announcement was another eyebrow-raising move by Habba, a 41-year-old Union County native who met the president after joining his Bedminster golf club and swiftly burrowed into his inner circle.

She rose to fame when she defended Trump in several high-profile legal cases, including an unsuccessful effort to ward off a defamation suit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he sexually abused decades ago.

In March, Trump named her New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney — and she quickly made her priorities known.

“We could turn New Jersey red,” she told right-wing outlet Real America’s Voice, citing 2024’s relatively narrow election results. “I really do believe that. There is momentum right now … and I think New Jersey is absolutely close to getting there. Hopefully, while I’m there, I can help that cause.”

It was a curious statement considering the U.S. attorney’s post is traditionally nonpolitical.

And it’s led some people — even a few Garden State Republicans — to suspect Habba is less concerned with voter fraud and more concerned with raising her profile ahead of a potential 2026 showdown with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker.

“Everyone in Republican circles right now is talking about her running for Senate [against Booker], and it seems like there is some real momentum there for her,” one GOP operative said.

“This task force really seems to be more for optics — I think it has less to do with the White House’s agenda and more to do with what she’s going to be doing next,” the operative continued. “But I think there are a lot of very pressing issues that she could be focusing on more than trying to get in front of a TV camera.”

That blatantly partisan stance — as well as her close ties to a deeply unpopular president — could hurt her in the Garden State, which has not voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 1988 and hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 1972.

It also might make it tough for Habba to convince anyone that her task force is anything but a PR stunt.

“There are few people less credible or qualified to lead an ‘election integrity’ effort than Alina Habba, who has made a career of lying professionally for Donald Trump,” Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic congresswoman and candidate for governor, said in a scathing statement last week.

“Let’s not forget what Trump’s election lies have done: undermined faith in our democracy and ignited a violent insurrection on Jan. 6,” added Sherrill, herself a former federal prosecutor in Habba’s new office.

“Habba has stated her goal of turning New Jersey red — a frightening statement from somebody who is supposed to be impartial and uphold the Constitution above all else.”

The League of Women Voters also pilloried the move, saying in a written statement that the task force is nothing more than a “fear tactic meant to intimidate New Jersey voters.”

“It is both incorrect and irresponsible for a U.S. attorney to imply there is widespread voting fraud and to undermine public confidence in our elections,” the League statement said. “Our elections are secure, and any attempt to undermine them is an attempt to silence voters.”

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The task force’s dubious mission is rooted in Trump’s order, which was meant to force sweeping changes to federal elections by making people prove they’re citizens when they register to vote, demanding states share information with the attorney general to “identify cases of election fraud” and banning the counting of ballots received after Election Day, among other things.

“We are going to have free and fair elections,” Trump said in a White House statement, though there’s never been any indication that America’s elections haven’t been free and fair.

Voting rights organizations — including the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters — sued immediately, and a federal judge halted parts of the measure, including the proof-of-citizenship requirement, according to The Associated Press.

In Habba’s announcement, she wrote her task force would enforce “federal statutes that prohibit voter registration fraud,” but did not explicitly mention the citizenship mandate.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Whatever Habba’s intentions, she’ll have to move quickly — the clock is ticking on her term, which is capped at 120 days unless Trump formally nominates her and she’s approved by the U.S. Senate or a panel of local district judges.

That’s unlikely to happen given her marked unpopularity outside Trump’s political base.

Until then, voting rights advocates say they’ll keep fighting against her task force and the restrictive ballot measures they believe are in the offing.

“These calls for investigating fraud are kind of a pretext for trying to pass new policies that really are about restricting access to the ballot rather than maximizing access to the ballot,” said Robert Brandon, president of the national nonpartisan voting rights organization Fair Elections Center.

“It sort of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy — if you scream and yell that the elections are fraudulent and unfair, some people go, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve heard the elections are fraudulent and unfair,’” he continued.