NJ voting scandal fuels national debate—NJ Top News
Here's the stories you'll be talking about on the New Jersey 101.5 Morning Show on Thursday:
🔗 Was your town hit by a tornado? NJ storm damage under review
☑️National Weather Service crew will survey Morris County after possible tornadoes
☑️Survey teams will inspect damage near Morristown and along Route 80
☑️An EF-0 tornado was confirmed in Cape May
The National Weather Service says a brief tornado touched down in Cape May and three in Morris County Tuesday, making them New Jersey's first tornadoes of the year.
A virtual survey determined that an EF-0 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale touched down around 6:15 p.m. in Cape May Point with winds between 60 and 70 mph. Witnesses said a waterspout came ashore and quickly dissipated. It traveled 30 yards along Lincoln Avenue, Yale Avenue, and near the intersection of Oxford Ave and West Lake Drive.
Storm survey teams in Morris County determined tornadoes also touched down in the Stanhope and Mount Olive areas, Lower Berkshire Valley and Pine Brooks. Details will be released later Wednesday.
The storms were especially strong in northern and southern New Jersey, where upward of 2 to 3 inches of rain fell and what looked like at least two tornadoes were spotted. Survey teams will check an area around Morristown and a wide area along Route 80 between Parsippany-Troy Hills and Stanhope to determine tornadic activity. New Jersey 101.5 Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow says they may find several touchdowns.
"The teams will look at the pattern of the debris, structure damage and over a dozen specific damage indicators to determine what passed through the area. For example, crisscrossed trees would indicate rotational winds while straight-line storm winds will cause trees to fall in the same direction," according to Zarrow.
🔗 NJ voter registration glitch sparks call for a federal probe
❎Republican lawmakers say governor's investigation isn't enough
❎One Republican has requested a federal investigation
❎GOP lawmaker wants the automatic voter registration program suspended
TRENTON — New Jersey Republicans are demanding action after a stunning admission that thousands of noncitizens were added to the state's voter rolls due to a software glitch.
In a stunning admission made on Tuesday, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said a "software error in New Jersey's Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024." The error was made despite these individuals indicating they were not U.S. citizens when applying for driver's licenses and identification cards, Sherrill said.
Despite not being permitted to vote, Sherrill said "fewer than 400 individuals" cast votes anyway.
GOP lawmaker calls on federal government to investigate
Now, state Sen. Joe Pennacchio, R-Morris, is calling for the federal government to get involved. On Wednesday, he sent a letter to U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate the matter.
The request comes on the heels of Sherrill indicating that once she learned about what happened, she "immediately" launched an investigation.
In his letter to Blanche, Pennacchio said more is needed.
"The Governor indicated that she has ordered an investigation into the matter. However, I have real concerns about transparency and the diligence with which the Administration will investigate this and other voter integrity issues," Pennacchio's letter to Blanche reads.
🔗 NJ voter registration glitch fuels Vance's call for voter ID bill
🗳️ Vice President JD Vance said New Jersey's voter registration error shows why Congress should pass the SAVE America Act.
⚖️ Gov. Mikie Sherrill said 6,600 noncitizens were mistakenly registered because of an MVC software error and blamed the Murphy administration for failing to disclose it.
🏛️ The case has intensified the national debate over election security and voting access.
TRENTON — Vice President JD Vance seized on New Jersey's voter registration scandal to urge the state's two Democratic U.S. senators to support the Republican-backed SAVE America Act.
The comment on X came hours after Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that a software glitch in the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission's voter registration system incorrectly registered 6,600 people who had answered "no" when asked whether they were U.S. citizens while applying for driver's licenses.
The governor blamed the Murphy administration for covering up the mistake, which appears to have been brought to her attention after Homeland Security last week revealed that as many as 35,152 noncitizens could be registered to vote in New Jersey.
Sherrill said her administration immediately ordered an investigation, directed officials to remove those mistakenly registered from the voter rolls and began replacing the vendor responsible for the system. A preliminary review found that fewer than 400 of those mistakenly registered ultimately cast ballots.
The disclosure has quickly become part of the national debate over election security. A week ago, President Donald Trump addressed the nation to once again dispute the result of the 2020 election, which he lost, and to push for the voter ID bill. In her announcement on Tuesday, Sherrill tried to get ahead of the political fallout by attacking Trump's claims and saying he "has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity."
🔗 Florida sex offender arrested after NJ Walmart standoff
⚠️A dispute led to a police standoff at Walmart in Lumberton
⚠️State Police found Blake Reed hiding in an RV engine compartment
⚠️Reed is on Florida's sex offender list and is not allowed to possess weapons.
LUMBERTON — A fight between a man and a Florida sex offender living in an RV triggered a 14-hour police standoff in the parking lot of a Walmart
Blake Reed, the Florida man who lives in the motor home, held off police from late Monday night until about 3 p.m Tuesday when the State Police TEAMS Unit finally arrested him.
Police were concerned because Reed, who refused to come out of his RV in the Route 38 parking lot, appeared to be armed with a flamethrower and a knife.
Police said that at 11 p.m., Reed had had a "verbal dispute" with a passenger in a car in the lot. It is not clear whether police knew what the fight was about. They said the two did not know each other.
During the confrontation, Reed "forcefully" removed the eyewear from the man's face before going into the RV, where he brandished a flamethrower, police said.
Police arrived and ordered Reed to come out with his hands up. He refused and instead holed up in the RV's engine compartment. He later dropped a knife through the rear floodboard of the RV, police said.
Police learned that Reed was on Florida's sexual offender list and is not supposed to have any weapons. According to the database, he was charged with lewd, lascivious battery with a victim between the ages of 12 and 15 years in 2009.
🔗 NJ man accused of shooting 3 during Fourth of July fireworks
🚔 A Passaic man surrendered after prosecutors charged him in a Fourth of July triple shooting.
➡️ Three Passaic residents were wounded near the city's fireworks celebration and survived.
⚖️ The 20-year-old suspect faces attempted murder and multiple weapons charges
PASSAIC — A New Jersey man has turned himself in for shooting three people while the rest of the country was shooting off fireworks, according to authorities.
Orlando Bravo, 20, of Passaic is charged with two counts each of first-degree attempted murder and second- and fourth-degree aggravated assault. He also faces a litany of weapons offenses, according to Bergen County jail records.
According to the Passaic County Prosecutor's Office, he surrendered at the Passaic police station on Tuesday morning. Prosecutors said, without revealing any details, that the U.S. Marshals Service and State Police Fugitive Task Force helped to get Bravo to turn himself in.
Three people wounded near Passaic fireworks celebration
Around 8:37 p.m. on July 4, gunshots rang out in Passaic near Essex and Third Streets. Several restaurants, a church, a nightclub, and homes are in the area. It's also only a quarter-mile from Pulaski Park on Fourth Street, which is where the city hosts its annual Fourth of July fireworks. The fireworks show was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. sharp, according to the city.
At the scene, police found three people from Passaic who had been shot. All three victims were hospitalized and lived, despite their injuries.
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Gallery Credit: Mike Brant
NJ teachers recently accused of sexual crimes
Gallery Credit: Erin Vogt
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