Yesterday, the State Division of Elections announced that the request for voter data from the Trump administration’s “voter integrity commission” is “under review.” The Division’s statement seems to suggest that New Jersey will only release public information to the Commission in response to an OPRA request: “[N]o information has been released nor will any future information be released that is not publicly available or does not follow the appropriate legal process for information requests.”

Presumably, the “legal process for information requests” means OPRA. But it appears that the Division would have to deny any OPRA request submitted on behalf of the Commission because the request would not be from a citizen of New Jersey. As discussed here, the GRC ruled in October 2016 that only citizens of New Jersey may make OPRA requests.

As I’ve previously discussed, there’s no precedential court opinion on the question of whether OPRA is available only to New Jersey citizens. In the absence of judicial precedent on an OPRA issue, New Jersey state agencies typically comply with GRC rulings. In this matter, the Division would be constrained to reject entirely an OPRA request from the Commission, based on the GRC’s 2016 citizenship decision.