ACLU-NJ threatens lawsuit over Ocean County voter challenges

Democratic and unaffiliated voters in Bay Head received residency questionnaires after a local GOP leader submitted a list that didn’t include Republicans.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey has threatened to sue the Ocean County Board of Elections if it does not immediately halt what the organization described as an “unlawful mass voter challenge” targeting Democratic and unaffiliated voters.

In a Tuesday letter to Ocean County Board of Elections Chairman George R. Gilmore, ACLU-NJ Supervising Attorney Liza Weisberg and Legal Director Jeanne LoCicero said Dennis Shaning, president of the Bay Head Borough Council and the Bay Head GOP, gave election officials a list of people registered to vote in the Shore town whose tax bills are sent to addresses outside the borough.

The list included registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters but omitted registered Republicans, the attorneys said.

The election board then mailed the listed voters a “domicile questionnaire” to be returned by Sept. 30. It also scheduled an Oct. 13 meeting to review their submissions and determine their eligibility to vote, according to the ACLU-NJ.

Voters who did not respond could have their right to vote challenged in the Nov. 3 general election and future elections, the attorneys said.

“These actions reflect a stark misunderstanding of the rules governing voter eligibility and offend the integrity of the democratic process, in violation of several state and federal laws as well as the Constitutions of New Jersey and the United States,” Weisberg and LoCicero wrote.

The ACLU claims the board violated the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and voting rights, as well as the First Amendment, which bans the government from burdening voters based on their political affiliation.

The board also violated the National Voter Registration Act, which bars efforts to remove voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election. The board’s actions also violated the John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey, which prohibits voter intimidation and deceptive practices that interfere with voting, according to the ACLU-NJ.

“The Board has targeted voters based on their constitutionally protected political association and chilled their participation on the eve of an election with total disregard for the laws that prohibit precisely this kind of interference,” Weisberg said in a statement. “We will always protect New Jerseyans’ access to the ballot – we are urging Ocean County officials to do the same.”

Weisberg and LoCicero argued that having a tax bill mailed elsewhere does not establish that a voter is ineligible to vote at a registered address. The mailing address could belong to a relative, a second home or an accountant’s office, they said.

The ACLU-NJ has called on the board to cancel the portion of the Oct. 13 meeting concerning the targeted voters and confirm by 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 2, that it would take no adverse action against them based on their tax bill mailing addresses.

The organization also demanded that the board send corrective notices by Monday, Oct. 5, confirming that the recipients’ registrations remain active and that they need not respond to the questionnaire.

“If you do not, the ACLU-NJ is prepared to seek relief in court,” Weisberg and LoCicero wrote.

Gilmore told The Jersey Vindicator on Tuesday night that the board is composed of two Democrats and two Republicans and has no interest in bringing partisan politics into the election process.

“All four members voted to send out the questionnaire,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for 30 years; it’s not something we invented last week. When we have somebody that raises an issue about whether a person has the right to vote because there’s a question of domicile, we send out the questionnaire.”

About 37 letters were sent, he said, and about 13 questionnaires have been returned.

Gilmore said board members did not see the voters’ individual names before the letters were sent. If local Democrats want to submit their own list, he said, the board will follow the same process.

“We don’t care if they’re Republican, Democrat, or undeclared,” Gilmore said. “If they’re domiciled here, they have an absolute right to vote here, and we will fight for their right. If they’re not domiciled here, they don’t have a right to vote here.”

Shaning did not respond to a request for comment.

Bay Head, a borough with fewer than 1,000 residents, is a Republican-leaning town in Ocean County, a longtime Republican stronghold. Every member of Bay Head’s Borough Council is a Republican. Borough voters favored Donald Trump over his Democratic opponents in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections.