After Caldwell resigns, Pennacchio says the Acting SOS still owes the noncitizen-vote location records

Sen. Joe Pennacchio says Dale Caldwell’s resignation does not close his OPRA fight for records showing where self-identified noncitizens voted — without names — and wants a legislative hearing. His Aug. 28 letter to Gov. Mikie Sherrill remains the primary demand letter; a Sept. 28 Senate Republican statement renews the ask under Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu.

TRENTON — Dale Caldwell is out as lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Senator Joseph Pennacchio (R-26) says that does not close the Open Public Records Act fight over where self-identified noncitizens voted.

The primary demand letter (Aug. 28)

In an August 28, 2026 letter to Governor Mikie Sherrill, Pennacchio asked her to direct the Division of Elections and the Motor Vehicle Commission to provide, on a rolling basis, government records he said he had requested more than five weeks earlier. “To date, I have not received a single government record,” he wrote.

He asked that the first batch identify which local elections may have been affected by self-identified noncitizen voters. “I have not requested names, addresses, or other personal identifying information. Rather, I sought only information showing the elections in which those individuals voted.”

Pennacchio cited Sherrill’s disclosure that approximately 400 self-declared noncitizens had voted since June 2023 among more than 6,000 improperly registered under the prior administration (Sherrill’s July 21 statement used “roughly 6,600” registered and “fewer than 400” who voted after being newly registered because of the error — Jersey Intel uses Sherrill’s on-record figures for the administration’s admission).

He pointed to razor-thin local contests (including examples he listed such as a December 2023 Trenton City Council runoff decided by a single vote and a November 2025 Oakland Borough Council tie) as reasons the location-of-vote records matter, and said he was preparing a Government Records Council complaint if the election-location records were not promptly produced. He invoked Sherrill’s Inauguration Day Executive Order No. 5 language on transparency.

Sept. 28 renewal after Caldwell’s exit

On September 28, 2026, a New Jersey Senate Republicans release attributed to Pennacchio (PublicNow distribution) renewed the demand after Caldwell’s resignation:

“Dale Caldwell’s resignation does not absolve the administration of its responsibility to provide answers about the noncitizen voting scandal. The person holding the office of Secretary of State may have changed, but the records and questions surrounding this scandal remain.”

The statement says Pennacchio filed two OPRA requests seeking which elections those voters participated in and where they voted, that the administration has yet to provide records, and that he wants a legislative hearing where Caldwell could be questioned about his SOS role while the registration problem was identified and investigated and about what records were available to his office.

“With less than two months until a critically important election, New Jersey voters cannot afford unanswered questions about the integrity of its voter rolls,” the statement continues.

Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu inherits both the federal NVRA litigation posture and this OPRA clock.

Doubt angle

A narrow OPRA (no PII) should be easier to produce than a fishing expedition — yet extensions and breadth fights have defined the summer paper trail in secondary accounts of DOS responses. Who benefits from running out the clock past October 13 (voter registration deadline) and November 3? Pennacchio’s hearing ask targets Caldwell personally; the records ask targets the office. Those are different accountability tools. Jersey Intel has not independently verified every local margin Pennacchio cites; those examples are his letter’s advocacy illustrations pending production of the state’s own election-location data.