The Record - Little-Noticed Congressional Race Heats Up with Accusation of Voter Fraud, Rare Campaign Help

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By Herb Jackson and Mary Diduch

Rep. Scott Garrett's campaign accused challenger Roy Cho on Tuesday of committing voter fraud two years ago, but Cho said he broke no laws when he voted in Monmouth County two months after he moved to Hackensack in 2012, and a Democratic election lawyer agreed.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. took the unusual step of wading into a neighboring congressman's campaign by attacking Garrett during an appearance with Cho in Paramus. Despite intense partisanship in Washington, House members rarely go to neighboring members' districts to campaign with challengers. They do often contribute to candidates of their own party, and Pascrell is going further by both attacking Garrett and asking some of his fellow Democrats to support Cho.

The activity highlights how the race between Cho, a 33-year-old Democratic newcomer, and Garrett, a six-term Republican incumbent, has heated up since a poll last week showed Garrett could be vulnerable.

For most of the campaign, Cho has attacked Garrett's record as the state's most conservative representative while Garrett, 55, largely ignored him. But after a poll was released last week showing Garrett leading Cho just 48 percent to 43 percent, Garrett spoke out about his opponent, questioning his ties to the district.

"Most people don't know who he is or what he stands for, and that's because he just moved here," Garrett said, pointing to the 63 percent of voters who said they had no opinion of Cho.

Garrett's campaign got more aggressive Tuesday after The Star-Ledger reported Cho had moved to Hackensack in September 2012 but voted that November in Manalapan.

"Roy Cho should take some time to get his story straight about his voter fraud," Garrett's spokeswoman, Maggie Seidel, said in an email to The Record.

Cho said that after he graduated from law school in 2009, he considered his parents' home in Manalapan his primary residence even as he lived in an apartment in New York City and then rented an apartment in Hackensack. Cho used the Manalapan address for voting and taxes, and it was on his driver's license, he said.

That would be enough to support Cho's right to vote in Monmouth County if he were challenged, said William Tambussi, a Democratic lawyer who specializes in election law. Tambussi said New Jersey law allows people to have multiple residences but only one legal "domicile" and that it generally lets the voter choose which. If a voter is challenged at the polls, he must produce evidence connecting him to the address, such as a driver's license.

"The place you receive your mail, where you pay your taxes, where you're deemed to reside for all purposes of your intent, that's where you can vote from," he said.

"A lot of kids … may be transient, live somewhere part of the year, but their intent is to have their voting domicile be their parents' house until they set down roots."

The 5th District that Garrett represents has elected Republicans for decades, but redistricting in 2011 diluted the GOP strength by adding Democratic strongholds such as Hackensack. About 70 percent of the voters live in Bergen County, but the district also includes two communities in Passaic County and much of Warren and Sussex counties.

Elections in congressional districts can be difficult to predict. The Monmouth University poll of 432 likely voters in the district, taken between Oct. 10 and 14, had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points, meaning either candidate's support could be that much higher or lower.

Derek Roseman, Cho's campaign spokesman, said Cho decided in April 2013 that he wanted to settle in Hackensack and that he changed his license and other documents to that address. Cho also filed his statement of candidacy in April 2013.

"I'm not a carpetbagger, despite the fact that these claims are coming from Congressman Garrett," Cho said in Paramus. "The reality is I failed to change my voter registration in a timely enough fashion, like millions of other Americans have failed to do."

Seidel said that by saying he failed to change his registration in a timely fashion, Cho was admitting he broke the law.

"Also, millions of Americans who make this mistake aren't corporate lawyers who are running for Congress," she said.

Roseman said Seidel was seizing on a "poor choice of words."

"There is no fraud here. The only person throwing around voter fraud or crime are Scott Garrett and his people," Roseman said.

The questions arose as Cho was receiving a boost on a local issue from Pascrell, D-Paterson.

Pascrell appeared with Cho to attack Garrett for supporting cuts to a program that funds federal grants to cities and towns to hire police. Paramus is receiving $600,000 to hire five officers this year from the program, part of $12.2 million announced recently for municipalities across New Jersey.

"If Paramus' representative in the United States House of Representatives had his way, you wouldn't have had five [officers]. You'd have had zero," Pascrell said, referring to Garrett. "Paramus and the 5th District residents deserve better."

Garrett has supported budgets that would have reduced the police grant program and opposed amendments, some sponsored by Pascrell with Republican co-sponsors, to restore the funding.

Pascrell said he was taking the unusual step of getting involved in the 5th District race because he believes Cho "can make smart decisions."

Seidel said Garrett had a long history of supporting law enforcement.

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