French Noncitizen Pleads Guilty To Illegal Voting In 2022 New Jersey Election
Eliezer Kadoch, a French citizen, pleaded guilty June 25, 2026 to illegally voting in the 2022 federal midterm election in New Jersey and faces up to six months in prison and a $100,000 fine.[1]
He pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Brandon Day in Trenton, court filings show.[1] Sentencing is scheduled for October 26, 2026.[1] Kadoch's attorney said he believed he was allowed to vote after being automatically registered when he obtained a New Jersey driver's license.[1] The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office Election Integrity Task Force and investigated by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.[1]
New Jersey enacted automatic voter registration in 2018, linking voter enrollment to transactions at the Motor Vehicle Commission without requiring proof of U.S. citizenship. Under the law, eligible people were enrolled unless they opted out, and noncitizens who held state driver's licenses could be added to rolls.
On April 29, 2025, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced an Election Integrity Task Force in the District of New Jersey to investigate alleged election violations, including noncitizen voting.
The mainstream summary does not mention that New Jersey's automatic voter registration system, which allowed Kadoch to be registered, has been criticized for its vulnerabilities. According to a 2024 paper by Virgil Wiebe, the combination of issuing driver's licenses to noncitizens and automatic voter registration creates systemic risks for ineligible registrations, particularly when citizenship verification relies on self-attestation rather than mandatory proof of citizenship. This context raises questions about the adequacy of the safeguards in place to prevent noncitizen voting, which the mainstream coverage fails to address.
Additionally, while the summary highlights Kadoch's case as an isolated incident, it overlooks broader data suggesting that noncitizen voting is not widespread. For instance, audits in states like Georgia and Utah have identified only a handful of noncitizens on voter rolls compared to millions of registered voters. This suggests that while Kadoch's case is significant, it may not reflect a larger trend of noncitizen voting in New Jersey or elsewhere.[2][3]
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📊 Relevant Data
New Jersey had approximately 6.25 million registered voters.
NJ Voter Registration by Party: Democrats, Republicans & ... — Independent Voter Project
State audits identified small numbers of noncitizens on voter rolls relative to total registrations, such as 20 in Georgia out of 8.2 million and 1 confirmed in Utah out of more than 2 million.
Four Things to Know about Noncitizen Voting — Bipartisan Policy Center
📌 Key Facts
- On November 8, 2022, French citizen Eliezer Kadoch illegally voted in a federal midterm election in New Jersey despite never holding U.S. citizenship.
- Kadoch pleaded guilty to voting by an alien in a federal election before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Brandon Day in Trenton, as reported June 25, 2026.
- He faces up to six months in federal prison and a $100,000 fine, with sentencing set for October 26, 2026.
- Kadoch's attorney says he believed he was allowed to vote after being automatically registered when he obtained a New Jersey driver’s license.
- The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Election Integrity Task Force and investigated by the FBI, HSI and USCIS.
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