Three voters on a list from Bay Head's council president and the League of Women Voters say the Ocean County Board of Elections broke a new state voting law, while the board's chairman says it followed the law and will remove only voters who asked.
Three Bay Head voters and the League of Women Voters of New Jersey asked a state judge to stop Ocean County's election board from ruling Oct. 13 on the eligibility of 39 voters named by the borough's council president.
The board meets the same day voter registration closes for the Nov. 3 general election. Voters the board removes after that meeting "will likely be unable to re-register to vote in any New Jersey county for the November 2026 general election," the suit says.
Ada Draesel, 84, is one of the 39. Bay Head has been her full-time home for roughly 25 years, and she and her late husband bought their first house there about 53 years ago, she said in a statement filed with the suit. Her daughter and son-in-law in Massachusetts manage her tax bills and receive them there.
"I've gone to the same polling place, year after year, for decades, and now I'm being questioned about my eligibility. I am stunned. I am undone by it," Draesel said in the statement.
"We're not going to vote to remove anybody before the election," George R. Gilmore, who chairs the Ocean County Board of Elections, said Oct. 8. Gilmore did not respond to requests for comment. His remarks here are from his public statements.
Represented by the ACLU of New Jersey and the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School, the League and the three voters sued the board and Gilmore, in his official role, Oct. 8 in state Superior Court in Mercer County. The complaint relies on the state constitution and on the new John R. Lewis Voter Empowerment Act of New Jersey, whose ban on "acts of intimidation, deception, violence or restraint, or obstruction" affecting voters took effect Aug. 15.
It asks the court to stop the board, before Nov. 3, from judging the listed voters on their party, where their tax bills go, the board's questionnaire or whether they attend the Oct. 13 meeting. It also seeks damages and legal fees.
"The Gilmore Letters appear motivated to stop these voters from voting for non-Republican candidates in the November election," the complaint alleges.
Gilmore has said party plays no part. "We don't care if they're Republican, Democrat, or undeclared," he said Sept. 29.
"The Ocean County Board of Elections has intimidated and discriminated against voters in Bay Head and put unconstitutional barriers in the way of the exercise of their fundamental right to vote," Liza Weisberg, a supervising attorney at the ACLU of New Jersey, said in a statement. The group calls the case the first brought under the new law.
The review began with a letter from the council president
Dennis Shaning is both the Bay Head council president and the president of the Bay Head GOP. He signed an Aug. 21 letter to the county election board and county clerk with both titles, on Bay Head GOP letterhead, according to the copy filed with the suit.
"We have sufficient reason to believe that the individuals on the attached list should not be voting in Bay Head," Shaning wrote, pointing to tax bills "being sent to addresses outside of Bay Head."
If they live most of the year somewhere else, he added, "we feel they should be voting in the municipality where they receive their tax bills."
The attached list has 39 rows, each giving a voter's name, party, birth date, Bay Head address and tax-bill mailing address. Its party column shows only Democrats and unaffiliated voters.
Heather Robertson, an unaffiliated voter on the list, said in her statement that she has lived in Bay Head full time for 24 years and worked to elect Shaning. "He made a conscious choice to include me on that list anyway," she said. Shaning did not respond to requests for comment.
"I never reviewed the list. I did not see it," Gilmore said Sept. 29. "Normally, the president of the Republican Club would look to challenge Democrats. The president of the Democrat club would look to challenge Republicans. That's common sense," he said.
On Sept. 15, the board sent voters on the list a letter over Gilmore's signature. It asked them to return a Domicile Questionnaire by Sept. 30 and to let the board know by Oct. 9 if they would attend its Oct. 13 meeting.
Without word from them by then, the letter warned, their "right to vote may be challenged" in November "and future elections."
The questionnaire, also filed with the suit, has 16 numbered questions, from the addresses on voters' tax returns and boat registrations to their children's schools. It asks for copies of the latest tax returns "if available." The letter also carried a pre-printed "Letter of Removal" for any voter who wanted to give up a Bay Head registration, the suit says.
Scott Colby, another plaintiff, said in his statement, "I felt particularly uncomfortable providing the Board of Elections with my tax returns."
Gilmore says the board will remove only voters who ask
Board staff had already removed two of the 39, Gilmore said Oct. 8. Two other voters have since told the board they do not live in Bay Head and asked to come off the rolls, he said.
Staff found that 10 more had documented their eligibility, and the board plans to clear those names Oct. 13, according to Gilmore.
He said the board will question the eligibility of five others at the meeting, but those voters will keep their registrations through Election Day.
Any of the five who tries to vote in Bay Head would face a challenge at the polls and could take it to a judge of the state Superior Court in Toms River, Gilmore said.
He also said the state attorney general's office will send the board a letter laying out how to proceed. "The board has acted in compliance with the law and the questionnaire that was sent out was previously approved by the New Jersey Attorney General," Gilmore said.
Neither the board nor the attorney general's office has released a copy of any approval. The attorney general's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Under state law, the board has two Republicans and two Democrats. Gilmore chairs the Ocean County Republican Organization, and Commissioner Wyatt Earp, the board's secretary, chairs the county's Democratic organization. Republican Justin Flancbaum and Democrat Jeff Horn hold the other seats.
Gilmore has described the vote to send the questionnaires two ways. "All four members voted to send out the questionnaire," he said Sept. 29.
On Oct. 8, he said the Bay Head review passed 2-1 along party lines, with Earp not voting.
"Despite strong Democratic objections, the Republicans on the Board of Elections voted to send the targeted voters questionnaires demanding information about their residency and warning that their eligibility to vote could be challenged," the party organization Earp chairs said in a statement. Earp and Horn did not respond to requests for comment.
State law spells out how a name comes off the rolls
The board's questionnaire asks about domicile, which the state Supreme Court in 1955 described as the home a person means to stay in and return to when away. A person can have several residences but only one domicile, the court said.
ACLU-NJ disputed the tax-bill test in a Sept. 29 letter to the board. "The mailing address on a tax bill provides no direct evidence of domicile," the letter said.
Gilmore sees the board's role differently. "If there's a basis for a challenge, it's our duty to seek information to make a determination, and that's what we've been doing for 30 years," he has said.
State law offers three routes. A voter can ask to come off the rolls, and the commissioner of registration must then remove the name, the law says.
A Superior Court judge can also order a name struck after a hearing, once the voter gets notice by mail and the names appear in a newspaper. The law sets one timing rule for judges: "Such judge shall not order any name stricken subsequent to the sixth Tuesday preceding any election."
The third route runs through the polls. On Election Day, poll workers and party challengers can challenge a voter, who can answer with a signed affidavit and identification. If the poll workers split evenly, the voter gets a ballot, and a voter turned away can go to a Superior Court judge.
The board's meeting falls on the registration deadline
As of Oct. 11, no ruling on the plaintiffs' request for temporary restraints had become public.
Gilmore said Oct. 8 that the board's legal advice so far is that it acted properly. "And we'll leave it that way until we see what a court wants to do," he said. "Anyone has the right to sue anyone else," he told NJ.com in an interview published Oct. 9. "This is America."
The board meets at 2 p.m. Oct. 13 at its offices in Toms River. Its office stays open until 9 p.m. that day for voters registering before the deadline. Early voting runs Oct. 24 through Nov. 1.
Colby said in his statement that he will be at the meeting. Draesel said she will be in Massachusetts that week.
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Sources
ACLU of New Jersey, "ACLU-NJ and Harvard Election Law Clinic File Suit on Behalf of Voters Unlawfully Targeted by the Ocean County Board of Elections" (Oct. 8, 2026)
ACLU of New Jersey, letter to Ocean County Board of Elections Chairman George R. Gilmore, "Re: Unlawful Voter List Maintenance Practices" (Sept. 29, 2026)
DiFilippo, Dana, New Jersey Monitor, "Civil liberties group clashes with GOP election chief over voter challenge" (Sept. 29, 2026)
Faughnan, Stephanie A., Jersey Shore Online, "33 Voter Registrations To Be Reviewed After State Error" (Sept. 29, 2026)
Janoski, Steve, Jersey Vindicator, "ACLU-NJ threatens lawsuit over Ocean County voter challenges" (Sept. 30, 2026); "Lawsuit alleges partisan bias in Bay Head voter residency review" (Oct. 9, 2026)
Larsen, Erik, Asbury Park Press, "ACLU sues Ocean County election board over Bay Head voter 'purge'" (Oct. 8, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Revised Statutes Title 19, provisions on county boards of elections, removing names from the voter rolls, court orders striking names and challenges at the polls (accessed Oct. 3, 2026)
New Jersey Superior Court, Chancery Division, Mercer County, League of Women Voters of New Jersey v. Ocean County Board of Elections, No. MER-C-000085-26, brief in support of order to show cause with temporary restraints (Oct. 8, 2026)
New Jersey Superior Court, Chancery Division, Mercer County, League of Women Voters of New Jersey v. Ocean County Board of Elections, No. MER-C-000085-26, complaint (Oct. 8, 2026)
New Jersey Superior Court, Chancery Division, Mercer County, League of Women Voters of New Jersey v. Ocean County Board of Elections, No. MER-C-000085-26, exhibits A through H (Oct. 8, 2026)
New Jersey Supreme Court, State v. Benny, 20 N.J. 238 (Dec. 19, 1955)
Ocean County Board of Elections, 2026 general election notices (Sept. 18, 2026)
Ocean County Board of Elections, home page, meeting schedule and commissioners list (accessed Oct. 4, 2026)
Opperman, Lia, NJ.com, "A Jersey Shore election chief defends a voter challenge aimed at Democrats. The ACLU says it's illegal and may sue." (Oct. 3, 2026)
Photo: Mr. Matté / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)