He mistakenly believed he was legally permitted to vote
In Toms River, New Jersey, a French citizen named Eliezer Kadoch cast a ballot in the 2022 federal midterms — not out of malice, but out of a misplaced trust in a system that enrolled him automatically when he obtained a driver's license. His guilty plea before a federal magistrate opens a wider question that democracies have long wrestled with: when the machinery of civic inclusion outpaces the machinery of civic verification, who bears the cost of the error — the individual who followed the form, or the institution that failed to ask the right question?
- A French national faces up to six months in federal prison and a $100,000 fine for casting a single ballot he believed he was legally entitled to cast.
- New Jersey's automatic voter registration system enrolled Kadoch without verifying his citizenship, creating the very confusion that led to the crime — and the law requires no proof of intent to convict.
- Thirteen states have already found noncitizens on their voter rolls, revealing that the collision between driver's license access for noncitizens and automatic registration is not a one-state anomaly but a national pattern.
- Federal investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security, and USCIS pursued the case through an Election Integrity Task Force, signaling that even inadvertent violations will be prosecuted with the full weight of federal law.
- Reform advocates are pushing model legislation requiring proof of citizenship before registration and mandating regular audits of voter rolls — measures that would close the gap Kadoch fell through, though the broader debate over access versus verification remains unresolved.
On November 8, 2022, Eliezer Kadoch — a 39-year-old French citizen living in Toms River, New Jersey — walked into a polling place and voted in the federal midterm elections. He had no legal right to do so. He recently pleaded guilty to that federal crime before a magistrate judge in Trenton.
The story of how he got there begins with a driver's license. When New Jersey issued Kadoch his license, the state's automatic voter registration system quietly added him to the voter rolls. His attorney explained that Kadoch interpreted this official enrollment as confirmation that he was permitted to vote. He was wrong — but the system had never paused to verify whether he was a citizen before enrolling him.
The legal reality is unsparing: the offense does not require prosecutors to prove criminal intent. It does not matter that Kadoch believed he was following the law. The act of a noncitizen voting in a federal election is the crime, full stop. His attorney stressed that his client accepted responsibility, but the distinction between a mistake and a knowing violation carries no weight in the statute.
Kadoch now faces up to six months in prison and a $100,000 fine, with sentencing set for October 26. The case was built by a federal Election Integrity Task Force drawing on agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
His case is far from unique in its structural origins. Across thirteen states — from Alabama to Virginia — investigations have uncovered noncitizens enrolled on voter rolls, the consistent byproduct of pairing driver's license issuance to noncitizens with automatic registration. Reform advocates have proposed requiring proof of citizenship before enrollment and conducting regular audits to purge ineligible registrants.
What Kadoch's case ultimately lays bare is the friction between two legitimate democratic ambitions: broadening access to civic participation and ensuring that participation remains bounded by citizenship. He fell into the space between them — registered by a system that did not ask, voting on the assumption that the system had answered.
Eliezer Kadoch, a 39-year-old French citizen living in Toms River, New Jersey, cast a ballot on November 8, 2022, in the federal midterm elections. He had no right to do so. He was not an American citizen, had never been an American citizen, and the act of voting was a federal crime. On a recent date, he pleaded guilty to that crime before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Brandon Day in Trenton federal court.
The path to his guilty plea began with a driver's license. When Kadoch obtained his New Jersey driver's license, the state's automatic voter registration system enrolled him on the voter rolls. His attorney, Yosef Jacobovitch, explained to Fox News Digital that Kadoch believed this automatic registration meant he was legally permitted to vote. He was mistaken. The system had failed to verify his citizenship status before adding him to the rolls, and Kadoch, relying on what appeared to be official enrollment, cast his ballot thinking he was following the law.
Jacobovitch emphasized that his client "accepted responsibility for his actions" and that there was "never any intent to violate the law." The attorney noted a crucial legal point: the offense to which Kadoch pleaded guilty does not require prosecutors to prove criminal intent. Intent is irrelevant. The act itself—a noncitizen voting in a federal election—is the crime.
The consequences are substantial. Kadoch now faces up to six months in federal prison and a fine of $100,000. His sentencing is scheduled for October 26. The case was brought by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey through its Election Integrity Task Force, a coalition of federal law enforcement agencies. The investigation involved special agents from the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Kadoch's case is not isolated. The America First Police Institute, a nonprofit organization, has documented that the combination of issuing driver's licenses to noncitizens and coupling that issuance with automatic voter registration creates a systemic vulnerability. In recent years, numerous states—Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia—have investigated their voter rolls and discovered noncitizens enrolled to vote. The scale of the problem remains unclear, but the pattern is consistent across the country.
The AFPI has proposed model legislation to address the issue. Their recommendations include requiring proof of citizenship before voting and implementing regular audits to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls. These measures reflect a growing concern among election officials and law enforcement that the current system, designed to expand voter access, has created gaps in citizenship verification that foreign nationals can inadvertently—or deliberately—exploit.
Kadoch's case illustrates the tension between two policy goals: making voter registration accessible and ensuring that only citizens vote. His attorney's statement suggests that Kadoch fell into the gap between these two objectives. He received a driver's license, was automatically registered, and reasonably but incorrectly assumed he was eligible. Now he faces federal prison time for a crime he says he did not knowingly commit, in a system that did not require anyone to verify whether he was a citizen before letting him vote.
Citações Notáveis
Mr. Kadoch accepted responsibility for his actions. There was never any intent to violate the law or cast an unlawful ballot.— Yosef Jacobovitch, Kadoch's attorney
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
How does someone in Kadoch's position even end up on the voter rolls in the first place? Isn't there supposed to be a citizenship check?
There should be. But when New Jersey issues a driver's license to someone, the automatic registration system kicks in without verifying citizenship. Kadoch got his license, the system enrolled him, and no one stopped to confirm he was actually eligible to vote.
So he thought the government had already checked?
Exactly. His attorney said he mistakenly believed that if the state automatically registered him, the state had already verified he could vote. It's a reasonable assumption if you don't know the system has a flaw.
But intent doesn't matter legally, right?
Correct. The law doesn't care whether he knew he was breaking it. The crime is simply that a noncitizen voted in a federal election. Intent is irrelevant.
How widespread is this problem?
At least thirteen states have found noncitizens on their voter rolls—Florida, Georgia, Texas, and others. The America First Police Institute documented it. We don't know the total number of people affected, but it's clearly not just one person in New Jersey.
What's the fix?
The AFPI suggests requiring proof of citizenship before voting and auditing voter rolls regularly to catch noncitizens. But that requires states to change their systems, and automatic registration was designed to make voting easier, not harder.
So Kadoch is facing prison for a system failure?
That's one way to look at it. He's facing up to six months in prison and a $100,000 fine. His sentencing is in October. Whether that's justice or a cautionary tale depends on what you think the real problem is.