Lawmakers raised red flags years ago about voter registration—NJ Top News
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🔗 NJ was warned about voter registration safeguards years before scandal erupted
🗳️ Republicans raised concerns in 2019 about noncitizens potentially being registered to vote through the MVC.
⚠️ Then-MVC chief Sue Fulton testified that the Secretary of State was responsible for verifying voter eligibility.
🔎 The testimony is getting new scrutiny after about 6,600 records were improperly transmitted for voter registration.
New Jersey lawmakers were asking questions about safeguards designed to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls years before the state discovered thousands of potentially improper registrations.
The answers they received in 2019 are now getting a second look.
During a December 2019 Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican Assemblyman Erik Peterson questioned then-Motor Vehicle Commission chief administrator B. Sue Fulton about what would prevent an ineligible person from being registered to vote through the MVC.
Lawmakers were considering legislation allowing people who could not prove lawful presence in the United States to obtain New Jersey driver's licenses.
Peterson specifically wanted to know what safeguards existed to prevent someone who wasn't eligible to vote from being registered.
Fulton initially testified that the MVC's automatic voter registration process included "a verification of eligibility."
But under further questioning, Fulton explained applicants essentially verified their own eligibility by attesting, under penalty of perjury, that they met the requirements to vote.
"The individual verifies under penalty of perjury," Fulton testified, according to the New Jersey Globe.
When Peterson pressed further about whether MVC employees independently checked an applicant's eligibility, Fulton said they did not.
"The Secretary of State verifies voters' eligibility," Fulton testified. "That's how we do voter registration in the state of New Jersey."
🔗 ‘Taken far too soon’: NJ pair killed in horrific stolen SUV crash
🚨A stolen $220K Mercedes crashed into a sedan in Mays Landing Saturday morning
🚨Robert Barr Jr. and Alice Stilwell, both from Egg Harbor Township, were killed
🚨An adult and three teens face charges
HAMILTON (Atlantic) — Police in two Atlantic County towns tried to recover a stolen SUV valued at $220,000 before it crashed head-on into a sedan, killing a longtime couple Saturday morning.
Robert Barr Jr., 54, and Alice Stilwell, 67, both of Egg Harbor Township, were killed when their Hyundai sedan was hit by a stolen 2024 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon on Route 50 and Third Avenue in the Mays Landing section of Hamilton Township Saturday morning.
The sedan came to rest in front of the gas pumps at a Delta gas station.
An adult, Nayshaun Brown, 18, of Atlantic City, and three juveniles face charges of conspiracy to commit second-degree aggravated assault (bodily injury while joyriding), conspiracy to commit third-degree joyriding, conspiracy to commit second-degree eluding and conspiracy to commit second-degree theft by receiving a stolen motor vehicle.
Police tried to stop the stolen Mercedes hours before the crash
Court documents show Longport police tried to stop the Mercedes, which had Pennsylvania license plates, around 3:42 a.m. while it was driving west on the JFK Bridge.
🔗 Kean says he's stronger than ever as reporter controversy erupts
☑️Rep. Tom Kean says he is 'feeling stronger than ever' after returning to Congress
☑️Police were called after a reporter waited outside his campaign event
☑️The Republican says he does 'the most local press engagements of any NJ member of Congress'
WASHINGTON (Warren) — In his first media interview since returning to Congress after receiving treatment for depression, Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., 7th District, says he is “feeling great.”
Speaking at a campaign event at the Hawk Pointe Golf Club in Warren County Friday morning with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Kean told WFMZ-TV he is “feeling stronger than ever.”
But the event quickly became part of a larger controversy over Kean's accessibility to the media.
Things turned ugly after a New York Times reporter who was not invited into the event said Washington Township police were called on her while she waited in her car in the parking lot, hoping to ask Kean a question on his way out. The Times reported that a Fox News reporter was also seen inside the club.
The New York Times reporter said in a story posted on the newspaper's website Friday that she was not charged and was able to remain in the parking lot.
Saturday morning, on his campaign X account, Kean said he does “the most local press engagements of any NJ member of Congress” while attacking opponent Rebecca Bennett for staying “hidden from voters behind a campaign script.”
🔗 NJ school volunteer must pay back nearly $100K stolen from 2 PTOs
⚠️ Tara Webb stole $99,378.06 from two Deptford school PTO bank accounts.
➡️ Webb served as treasurer for the Shady Lane and Pine Acres PTOs.
🔴 She received five years of probation and must repay all the stolen money.
DEPTFORD — A 37-year-old local woman must pay back more than $99,000 from the parent teacher organization for which she volunteered, serving two Deptford public schools.
On Friday, Tara Webb, of Deptford, was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay full restitution by Gloucester County Superior Court Judge Renard L. Scott.
Webb previously pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by unlawful taking.
She had treated the PTO accounts as personal funds, racking up tens of thousands of dollars in purchases to Amazon, Target, Walmart, Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale, plus dozens of other food and retail businesses.
Webb was serving as treasurer for the Shady Lane and Pine Acres Early Childhood Center Parent Teacher Organizations, when she stole a total of $99,378.06 from the bank accounts of both groups, over the course of more than a year, staring in 2023.
Shady Lane School serves Kindergarten through 6th grade, while Pine Acres Early Learning Center runs from pre-Kindergarten through 1st grade.
The rampant theft was uncovered in February 2025, when school officials were notified of unpaid invoices for PTO-led events including a Scholastic Book Fair, yearbook sales and a chocolate selling fundraiser, according to an affidavit filed by investigators.
🔗 Sayreville police shoot man armed with a knife, prosecutors say
🚨Police shot a man after he refused to drop a knife in Sayreville, prosecutors said
🚨The man was taken to a New Brunswick hospital and later charged
🚨The suspect's identity and the specific charges have not been disclosed
SAYREVILLE — A Sayreville police officer shot a man who authorities say refused to drop a knife and then walked toward the officer with it.
The man was "menacing" people in a neighborhood along with someone in a vehicle on Kendall Drive in Sayreville early Saturday when police were called, according to Middlesex County Prosecutor Linda Estremera.
When police arrived, the male refused an order to drop the knife — instead, he walked toward an officer who shot him, Estremera said. The man was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for treatment and was charged.
Neither the suspect's identity nor the charges against him have been disclosed.
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