NJ signed an agreement with ERIC (Electronic Registration Information Center) in August 2022 but has not implemented it. C4NJEI understands NJ piloted ERIC earlier this year but didn’t complete enough testing before the recent general election.
ERIC is designed to match voter data across participating states and Social Security Administration death data. It identifies voters who have moved, died, or have duplicate registrations and gives states tools like USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) reports and cross-state fraud checks. In theory, this could be powerful.
But ERIC has been losing members, mostly “red” states, who argue ERIC focuses heavily on adding voters but has not done enough on removing voters who moved or died. Today ERIC covers just 24 states + DC, far short of nationwide visibility.
There is a better alternative, a new service soon to be launched that maintains data from 46 states + DC, its NCOA/PCOA matching and property record corroborating provides far more complete cross-state movement data than ERIC.
Using this service, NCOA, PCOA, and its own analytical tools, C4NJEI identified over 105,000 ballots cast in the most recent NJ general election that raise eligibility concerns including:
- voters who moved out of NJ
- exact name + DOB matches with NY &FL voters
- voters under 18 years of age when voted
- voters registered to PO boxes or commercial locations
These findings point to a systemic problem: NJ has no functional statewide or county mechanism or process to detect when voters move, die, or become ineligible. Other states attempt to solve this with a broken ERIC or USPS NCOA integrations which only covers about half of the permanent moves. NJ’s system is essentially blind.
Citizens deserve confidence that every legal vote counts and that legal votes are not abridged by illegal votes. A major element to this is ensuring that the voter roll reflects current eligible residents. That requires modern data tools, cross-state matching, and transparent updates. NJ is far behind.
C4NJEI encourages NJ voters to get involved. Join us or independently attend your county Board of Elections meetings. Ask how your county updates voter rolls and whether they are using NCOA, cross-state data, or any external checks. Your voice matters. Election boards will be put on notice and forced to respond.
