NJ campaign manager guilty in ridiculously brazen ballot scheme

TRENTON — A Democratic campaign manager from Hunterdon County has pleaded guilty to cheating to get a candidate on the Democratic primary ballot in the governor’s race in 2021.

James Devine was accused of submitting nearly 2,000 made-up names to get Lisa McCormick, his life partner, on the 2021 ballot for the Democratic primary for governor.

The 62-year-old Devine, who lives in Lambertville but spent years as a political operative and local newspaper publisher in Union County, pleaded guilty on Monday in Superior Court in Mercer County to a third-degree offense concerning nomination certificates or petitions.

RELATED: NJ Democratic campaign manager faces election fraud charges

In pleading guilty, Devine “acknowledged that he knew the petitions were falsely made when he filed them,” Platkin said.

Investigators found that Devine had uploaded false voter information onto petition forms and submitted them to the Division of Elections on behalf of the campaign without those voters’ approval.

Pending court approval of their plea deal, prosecutors would recommend two years of probation at Devine’s sentencing, set for Oct.18.

“For the public to have faith in our elections, it’s critical for law enforcement to ensure that efforts to tamper with them are investigated and prosecuted,” Platkin said  Wednesday.

“This defendant’s plea is a testament to my office’s commitment to fair elections and to holding bad actors accountable when they attempt to taint our democratic system,” he said.

Dead person, ‘Jose8’ among fake petitions

A written challenge by the Democratic State Committee was filed days after petitions were filed ahead of the June 8, 2021 Democratic primary.

The challenge listed issues with the digital petitions submitted by McCormick’s campaign, including the following:

❎ A person by the name of “First Name Middle Name Last Name,” who lives at “Address, City, State Zipcode.”

❎ Someone who spelled and signed their name as “Jose8.”

❎ A Seton Hall law professor who died in 2015 (according to NJDSC attorney Raj Parikh)

❎ Every single voter certification used the same fonts and signature style

Nearly every digital petition's address line also had the same extra spaces between city name and “NJ."

The state Division of Elections found that as proof that a computer program likely had filled out forms, in an identical manner.

McCormick was removed from the ballot within weeks, in a decision by Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Rabin.