New Jersey Vote-by-Mail Loopholes Exposed
Jersey Desk/10336659

TRENTON, N.J. - JerseyDesk -- Citizens for NJ Election Integrity today called for urgent reforms to New Jersey's Vote-by-Mail (VBM) system, citing critical imbalances in state law that allow unlimited assistance for registration and vote-by-mail applications and leave key activities untracked, creating unnecessary risks to election integrity and public confidence.

Under current NJ law, three primary roles govern VBM processes, but they are regulated very differently:

Bearers and Authorized Messengers face strict limits: no more than 3 non-family members or 5 family members per election. Messengers must deliver applications to the County Clerk, pick up blank ballots, and sign in the presence of clerk staff.

Assistors, by contrast, have no numerical cap. One individual or organization can assist an unlimited number of voters by helping complete ballots or, crucially, pre-filling voter registration forms and VBM applications. These applications often add voters to New Jersey's permanent Vote-by-Mail list.

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While Bearers and VBM Assistors are tracked in the NJ State Voter Registration System (SVRS), ballot Messengers are not, creating a significant transparency gap.

"New Jersey's VBM rules create a system where some roles are controlled while others operate with virtually no guardrails," said Mark Flaherty, Director at Citizens for NJ Election Integrity. "Unlimited Assistors pre-filling applications at scale, combined with untracked Messengers, is a recipe for fraud, especially when powerful political figures and organizations dominate these activities."

Recent election data highlights the issue. In the February 2026 Special Primary for the congressional seat vacated by Mikie Sherrill, the top Assistor was Leslye Moya, who assisted in 124 accepted vote-by-mail ballot applications and who now serves as Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the Governor's Office.

In the June 2025 Primary, the top Assistors by a wide margin were the CEO and other officers of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Voter Participation (closely tied to the Voter Participation Center). The group, which assisted in at least 1,914 accepted vote-by-mail applications, describes itself as non-partisan but, according to analysis of its activities, overwhelmingly registered Democrats over Republicans and Independents.

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These patterns, Citizens for NJ Election Integrity argues, demonstrate how the current framework enables concentrated influence without adequate safeguards, particularly when layered atop longstanding concerns about voter roll accuracy.

"Every voter deserves confidence that New Jersey's elections are secure, transparent, and fair," the organization stated. "We urge the Legislature and Governor's Office to close these loopholes by applying reasonable numerical limits to Assistors, ensuring full tracking of all roles in the SVRS, and strengthening oversight of the entire Vote-by-Mail process."

Visit https://www.citizens4njei.org or follow on X @Citizens4NJEI.