Judge never reported Chicago woman who voted in N.J. election

Superior Court Judge Kelly A. Conlon changed the outcome of a recent election in Bergen County when she tossed one vote cast by a 30-year-old woman who lives in Chicago but continued to vote in Oakland, but she never reported the infraction to law enforcement or election officials, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.

After last year’s Oakland Borough Council race and a recount ended in a tie, the voter, Natalie Carti, refused to testify at a trial in January, saying she intended to exercise her Fifth Amendment rights.  Conlon initially found Carti’s lease on a Chicago apartment, along with pay stubs and tax forms, to be inadmissible.

But Conlon allowed Carti’s parents to testify as to their daughter’s Chicago residency – and her political leanings – and reduced independent Matthew Dumpert’s vote total by one because that’s how the judge believed she had voted.

“The court finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that (the) respondent has sustained his burden of proof that her ballot contained a vote for Matthew Dumpert,” Conlon said in January.

She barred the mail-in ballot without knowing whether Carti voted for down-ballot candidates at all.  Over 300 voters who participated in the gubernatorial election didn’t vote for borough council, and Conlon had no way of knowing if Carti was one of them.

Conlon had previously allowed a rejected vote for Dumpert to be counted, and her disqualification of Carti brought the race back to a tie.

While New Jersey has no explicit law that says judges are obligated to report instances of voter fraud, the standard practice is to notify county prosecutors and forward records to election boards.

“Ethical duties and the obligation to uphold the law mean judges often must take action by referring credible evidence to the appropriate authorities,” said a sitting Superior Court judge who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  “If a judge were to knowingly ignore credible allegations of voter fraud, it could undermine public trust in elections.”

A spokesman for the judiciary declined to comment.

In New Jersey, violations of the state law governing residency may be charged as criminal offenses, although prosecutors rarely do so.

Records show that Carti is no longer listed as a registered voter in New Jersey.  She voted in 2020, 2024, and 2025.

She has worked at a payment processing software company in Chicago for more than two years.  Carti is married to former NFL player Jake Butt.

In a March special do-over election, Dumpert defeated Republican incumbent Kevin Slasinski by a landslide 71% margin.