James Devine, a campaign manager from Lambertville, Hunterdon County, has been sentenced to two years of probation on October 18, 2024. The sentencing was announced by Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA). Devine’s involvement in a fraudulent scheme during the 2021 New Jersey governor’s race led to his guilty plea to a third-degree crime concerning nomination certificates or petitions. Superior Court Judge Robert E. Lytle in Mercer County presided over the case.
“Rather than knocking on doors and making a good faith effort to convince voters to support his candidate, the defendant misused voters’ information without authorization, in order to deceive the State into believing his candidate met the bare minimum of requirements to be on the ballot,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Cheating in a race for elected office is illegal and undemocratic, and there are consequences for it.”
“Criminal activity that threatens peoples’ faith in the fairness and legitimacy of our elections is unacceptable,” said Drew Skinner, Executive Director of the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability. “This case should send a message that election fraud will be detected and offenders will be held accountable.”
The case stemmed from an April 2021 event in which Devine sought to get a candidate on the Democratic primary ballot by submitting 1,948 fake nomination forms to the New Jersey Department of State’s Division of Elections. Devine intended this act to enable his nominee to participate in the June 8, 2021 primary.
The New Jersey Democratic State Committee contested the legitimacy of the petitions shortly after their presentation, prompting OPIA to launch an investigation. The investigation discovered that Devine had entered fake voter information on the petition forms and submitted them without the voters’ permission.
Testimonies from persons whose names appeared on the petitions but verified they had not submitted or authorized the petitions led to the discovery of the fraudulent activities. As a result of these findings, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey N. Rabin removed Devine’s nominee from the ballot on April 13, 2021, agreeing with the committee’s legal arguments.
Devine stated in his plea that he knew the petitions were fake at the time of their filing. Assistant Attorney General Andrew Wellbrock prosecuted the case under the supervision of OPIA Corruption Bureau Chief Jeff Manis and Executive Director Skinner, underscoring the state’s continuous efforts to safeguard electoral integrity.
