Jersey City Ward A council candidate Ira Guilford's voting record is raising questions about his eligibility to be on the non-partisan November 4th ballot. By John Heinis/Hudson County View Voting records obtained by HCV show that Guilford voted in Maplewood, a township in Essex County, in the November 5th, 2024 general election. Responding to an inquiry, Jersey City Clerk Sean Gallagher said that all municipal candidates must have established residency for at least one year prior to this fall's elections. "In accordance with N.J.S.A. 40A:9-1.13, candidates must reside in the political subdivision which they are seeking to represent at one (1) year prior to the election," he wrote in an email. "Consequently, all candidates for the 2025 municipal election must have been residents of Jersey City since November 3, 2024. Anyone seeking to run for Ward Councilperson must have been a resident of that Ward since November 3, 2024." While his response did not confirm or deny that Guilford would be able to run for the Ward A city council seat, election law attorney Matt Moench, a former mayor of Bridgewater township, says the case law here is clear. "Under New Jersey law N.J.S.A. 19:4-1, a person is only eligible to vote in the 'election district in which he actually resides, and not elsewhere.' When a voter registers to vote or updates their registration, they sign a declaration attesting that they do in fact live at the address where they are registered under penalty of criminal prosecution," he explained. "N.J.S.A. 19:34-11, among other statutes, makes it a crime to vote fraudulently. Therefore, a vote is required to register to vote where they actually live and may only vote at the location where they actually live. If a voter voted in an election, then by law they must have been a resident at that location at the time they voted, otherwise they would have voted fraudulently." Guilford, a financial planner at Northwestern Mutual who was an All-American football player at Ohio State, announced he would be running for Ward A council on former Board of Education President Mussab Ali's ticket in late March, as HCV first reported. According to Moench, who is not involved in the Jersey City municipal elections in any capacity, it is "virtually impossible" for a candidate to have voted in one municipality in 2024 and be eligible to run in a different municipality in 2025. "While I cannot speak about any specific candidate, and have no knowledge of any specific facts about any candidate's residency or voting history, under New Jersey law, it would be virtually impossible for a candidate to have legally voted in one municipality in 2024, and to meet the residency requirements to be a candidate in 2025 in a different jurisdiction, especially given the fact that the November 2025 election is one day short of a year from the 2024 election," he declared. Ali said the campaign still fully expects Guilford to be on the November 4th ballot once a review of this matter is complete. "We’re fully aware of the issue and have been in direct communication with the City Clerk. Ira has been a committed resident of Jersey City for years, and while he has occasionally maintained dual residency in Maplewood, both our team and legal counsel feel that the law allows for this," he said in a text message. "We fully expect this matter to be resolved promptly and for Ira to be confirmed as eligible. There’s no doubt—he would be an exceptional city councilman." The other declared Ward A council candidates thus far are incumbent Denise Ridley, who is part of Ward E Councilman James Solomon's slate, Brandi Warren, whose running on former Gov. Jim McGreevey's ticket, and Pam Johnson, who is on a team led by Hudson County Commissioner Bill O'Dea (D-2).