Voting twice for president in NJ and Florida is possible for 300 double-registered voters

More than 300 voters registered in New Jersey and Florida could potentially vote twice in the presidential election this year, a review of voting data from both states by the USA TODAY Network New Jersey found.

Twenty-three of those 327 voters have already returned New Jersey ballots as of Oct. 21, voting records from New Jersey show. Florida election records do not reveal whether someone voted until after Election Day.

There is no legal prohibition on being registered to vote in more than one state, but it leaves open the possibility of someone casting two ballots in one election, which is illegal. Voting rights advocates say this type of voter fraud is nearly nonexistent.

“It’s very, very rare,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s voting rights and elections program. “You hear about it more with people who are wealthy and have multiple homes. So much of this fraud stuff is highly racialized and many communities are vilified.”

Still, the number of double registrations in New Jersey and Florida does concern election clerks, though they say they believe most of the problem is ignorance of election law, not an attempt to commit voter fraud.

“The safest bet is, vote where you live," said Joseph Negron, who works for the Hudson County superintendent of elections.

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The Asbury Park Press and Bergen Record are part of the USA TODAY Network. The Network obtained the most current New Jersey and Florida voter rolls through public information requests. The data are the same information that political parties use to determine voting addresses, party affiliations and voting histories. New Jersey produces a "vote by mail" data file each day that shows the New Jersey voters who have mailed their ballots to their county election offices.

The Network used a computer to match the New Jersey and Florida voter rolls by using the voter's name, date of birth and the address the mail-in ballot was sent to in Florida.

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The 327 voters were registered as being current and active voters in both states, the Network found. Of the 23 ballots sent to New Jersey from their Florida addresses, seven could be chalked up to registration overlaps, those seven registering in Florida after Aug. 1, 2020. But the remainder of the voters have been in Florida since at least 2003. Nine of the 23 voted in past Florida elections, records showed. None of the voters could be reached for comment.

The party breakdown for the 23 who are registered in both states is: six Democrats, seven Republicans, one independent and nine with no party affiliation.

Ultimately, 23 votes would make little difference even in a close presidential race that could see six million ballots cast in New Jersey, 14 million in Florida and 150 million or more nationwide. The votes, however, could tip the scales in small municipal or school board races. Last year a Cresskill councilwoman lost reelection by three votes.

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A 2012 study from the Pew Center on the States found 2.8 million voters are registered in more than one state. The center's research concluded that nationwide, voter registration systems are cost-inefficient relics of their 19th century origins.

Cleaning up the often-outdated state voter rolls is one of the missions of Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a nonprofit consortium of 30 states, plus the District of Columbia. The group also helps identifies eligible voters (New Jersey is not a member).

Shane Hamlin, ERIC's executive director, said dual registration is common for highly mobile populations.

People who move let family members, friends and the United States Postal Service know, but, he said, they usually don’t tell their local elections clerk.

"It's one of the challenges that election administrators have, in terms of keeping their voter rolls accurate," Hamlin said.

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To keep members states' voter rolls fresh, ERIC compares their voter registration data with motor vehicle licensing information and the Social Security Administration's master death index list. When they find duplicates, they send that info to the states so they can remove voters who have died or moved out of state. States pay to be a part of ERIC.

Since ERIC's founding in 2013, it has identified more than 3.6 million voters who moved out of state and didn't change their voter registration.

Historical context

While a potential 327 double votes do not seem like enough to swing an election, in the 2000 presidential race it was just 537 votes cast of more than six million in Florida that changed history.

Florida’s 25 electoral votes were going to be the difference in who won the election between then Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.

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At first, Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced that Bush had won the state.

But given the small number of votes, Democrats sued to force a recount, which led to a five-week battle in the courts to ultimately determine the winner.

Democrats first lost in Florida's Circuit Court, but the decision was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court. Republicans then appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling.

In a 5-4 vote, the justices ruled that there would be no recount — handing the election to Bush.

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Counties do investigate potentially false or outdated voter registrations. Negron, of Hudson County, said his office will send an investigator to an address if they get a tip that a voter no longer lives there but still receives election-related mail. Pat DiCostanzo, the Bergen County elections superintendent, said she's going to look into the two Bergen County voters that the Network found had New Jersey and Florida registrations and recently voted using a New Jersey ballot.

“Some of them, truly, they’re snowbirds," she said, using the common term for New Jersey residents who winter in Florida. "They’re down there, or because of COVID, they went down and they didn’t come back. That’s one issue.”

Terrence T. McDonald is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. Email: mcdonaldt@northjersey.com Twitter: @terrencemcd 

Keith Schubert is the morning breaking news reporter for APP.com. He can be contacted via text, call or signal at (732) 239-8731 or emailed at kschubert@gannett.com. Twitter: @keithsch94.