Partner Peter C. Harvey Appointed by Attorney General’s Office to Lead New Jersey Election Investigation

Partner Peter C. Harvey will lead an investigation into voting miscounts in November 2022 local elections in Monmouth County, New Jersey. He also will review and evaluate the policies used by the county Board of Elections to conduct elections. Mr. Harvey, a past Attorney General of the state and a former federal prosecutor, and Patterson Belknap will oversee the probe into whether unlawful activity was connected to voting machine failures and votes being counted twice in six elections. The attorney general’s office, in a statement on Mr. Harvey’s appointment, said that the investigation was needed “to encourage and preserve public trust in our elections” and that “[Peter Harvey and the firm] will also make recommendations for future election reform.”

Mr. Harvey advises corporate and individual clients in commercial litigation as well as sensitive internal and government investigations. He has served as Independent Monitor for the Newark Police Department (NPD) since 2016. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the NPD's compliance with a Consent Decree issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2022, Mr. Harvey was selected as a member of the NFL’s Diversity Advisory Committee, which was established to review league and club policies to address concerns over the lack of diversity in the hiring of head coaches and senior executives within the NFL’s teams.  Mr. Harvey is also a board member of Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit organization that seeks to end violence against women and children around the world.

Mr. Harvey served as New Jersey Attorney General from 2003 to 2006 where he enacted mandatory racial profile training for law enforcement officers and was the chair of New Jersey’s Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force.

Click here to read Law360’s coverage of Mr. Harvey’s appointment.

Click here to read Gothamist’s coverage.