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James Devine, a Lambertville resident, submitted 1,948 fraudulent nominating petitions to the New Jersey Department of State’s Division of Elections, in an attempt to enable his candidate, Lisa McCormick, to compete in the primary, Attorney General Matthew Platkin said. Devine pleaded guilty in August.
“Rather than knocking on doors and making a good faith effort to convince voters to support his candidate, the defendant misused voters’ information without authorization, in order to deceive the State into believing his candidate met the bare minimum of requirements to be on the ballot,” said Platkin. “Cheating in a race for elected office is illegal and undemocratic, and there are consequences for it.”
During an investigation, individuals whose names appeared on the petitions submitted by Devine provided information that they had neither submitted a petition nor authorized one in support of the candidate’s nomination, Platkin said.
The investigation revealed Devine had uploaded false voter information onto petition forms and submitted them to the Division of Elections on behalf of the campaign without the voters’ approval, Platkin said.
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