The county is investigating voter registration irregularities, and one mayoral candidate is questioning the legitimacy of some voters who could be headed to the ballot box on Tuesday.
The county prosecutor’s office confirmed that they had the matter referred to them by the county superintendent of elections, Marie Borace.
“If there’s substance to the allegation,” said First Assistant Prosecutor Terrence Hull, “we would prosecute.” Borace last week forwarded to the county prosecutor’s office what she has deemed to be some 2,000 “irregular” registrations. She would not reveal where the majority of the irregularities were centered or if they were associated with any candidate.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Louis Manzo plans to challenge the legitimacy of 70 new registrants at six addresses.
“What we intend to do is challenge those people who can’t possibly live there,” said Manzo campaign worker Ira Jersey. He cited new registrants at demolished buildings in the A. Harry Moore projects on Duncan Avenue and a boarding home on Summit Avenue. The campaign intends to have representatives at the polls to ask would-be voters to produce evidence of their residence – typically a utility bill or drivers’ license.
“We made an inquiry because there’s a couple of abandoned buildings with registered voters in them,” said candidate Lou Manzo.
In order for the fake registrations to affect the election, someone would have to vote or fill out an absentee ballot using the fake name.
Manzo’s inquiry was filed on Thursday. Borace said that she received the request, but has also been investigating since November other irregularities for one group that submitted some 2,000 new registrants.
She said the tip-off came when a worker in her office got an unusual sample ballot.
That worker first noticed that her first name was incorrect. Then, upon further investigation, it was learned that the “new registrant” had a birth date of 1963. The worker, said Borace, is 72 years old. She surmised that those responsible for creating the new registrant simply took her name off a mailbox and invented a first name, signed it and submitted it to the county.
Voter fraud is nothing new in Hudson County. Candidates have waylaid the mentally ill, the dead and the non-existent into the polling booths in years past.
Borace called the organization she believes to be responsible for some of the irregularities “reputable,” but noted “this is going to be a mark on all the things they do.”
Borace said the date was too late to remove any name from the lists that go out to the polling sites in the city, so it will be up to poll workers and any challengers to verify potential voters.