Four residents in New Jersey face federal charges that prosecutors say center on voting while not U.S. citizens and then allegedly providing false information during later naturalization filings.
In a statement on Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office for New Jersey said the four people were not U.S. citizens when they registered to vote and cast ballots in federal elections, as federal law requires. Federal prosecutors said the charges include illegally voting in a federal election, making false statements when applying for citizenship, and unlawful procurement of citizenship or naturalization.
Prosecutors said all four voted in at least one federal election between 2020 and 2024, a period that included two presidential elections and one midterm election. After casting ballots, prosecutors allege the defendants submitted applications for naturalization in which they falsely claimed they had never voted or registered to vote in a federal election.
U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer said the charges reflect his office’s “commitment to protecting the integrity of our election system.”
The U.S. attorney’s office said last year it launched a task force focused on election-related crimes, including voter registration fraud, the casting of fraudulent ballots, voting by noncitizens, and individuals voting multiple times in the same election.
The case also comes as election officials and others have said claims of widespread voter fraud that circulated after the 2020 election have been amplified on social media and by President Donald Trump and his allies. Current and former election officials have previously told The Associated Press that such fraud is isolated and rare, pointing to how U.S. elections are decentralized across thousands of independent voting jurisdictions, which officials say makes large-scale vote-rigging extremely difficult.
Frazer, the office said, was appointed in March, ending what AP described as a high-profile standoff between the judiciary and the Trump administration over control of the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey. AP also reported that Trump’s prior picks for the role, including his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, had been disqualified.