What’s She Hiding? RNC Sues NJ’s Dem Secretary of State Over Withheld Voter Rolls

By Teri Christoph | 3:45 PM on November 17, 2025

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) has lost patience with the state of New Jersey and Tahesha Way, its Democrat secretary of state, and has had to resort to filing a lawsuit to get Way to answer basic questions about the state's voter roll maintenance practices.

In a Monday announcement, RNC officials revealed they had filed an election integrity lawsuit against Way after she repeatedly declined to pull the curtain back on how the state keeps its voter rolls clean, as is required by law. RNC Chairman Joe Gruters commented, "New Jerseyans deserve to know whether their voter rolls are accurate. Clean and transparent voter lists are essential for trust in our elections. The RNC is suing to obtain these records and ensure the state follows the law."

The RNC revealed that it has asked Way's office to provide this information no less than 18 times, and 18 times she and her staff turned them down cold. This, argues the RNC, violates federal law.

Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to remove ineligible voters—such as those who have died or moved out of the jurisdiction—from the voter rolls. Under the act, states must permit the public to inspect records showing how voter rolls are maintained.

Earlier this year, the RNC sent records requests to election officials in 48 states and Washington, D.C., in an effort to obtain information on how each jurisdiction maintains the integrity of its voter rolls. They were specifically looking to obtain documents detailing this information, a request that was repeatedly denied by New Jersey.

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Of particular concern to the RNC was how voters who requested to be removed from voter rolls were handled. Presumably, Ms. Way wishes to keep that information to herself, which begs the question, "What does she have to hide?" Is her office doing anything at all to ensure the voter rolls are kept clean in compliance with the law? This is information that should be easy for the secretary of state's office to access, as the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires state election officials to hold onto records for two years.

This new lawsuit comes after the RNC filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) lawsuit against New Jersey in March, again for its refusal to turn over the requested documents regarding the state voter rolls. That lawsuit followed President Trump's signing of an executive order "requiring states to use proof of U.S. citizenship for federal voter registration, setting Election Day as the uniform deadline for receiving ballots in federal elections, and conditioning federal election funding on compliance with those and other election-integrity rules."

The RNC’s effort to extract voter roll information from New Jersey is part of its state-by-state approach – working alongside the Trump administration – to ensure election integrity across the country. We can expect to see additional lawsuits as other states, knowing the all-important midterm elections are on the way, decide to stonewall bringing transparency back to America’s elections.

Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.

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