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Roy Cho, the Democratic candidate running for Congress in north Jersey's 5th District, says he moved to the district in the summer of 2012. But voting records show Cho voted in Manalapan, where he grew up, in November 2012

(Courtesy of RoyCho.com)

TRENTON — Roy Cho, the Democratic candidate who's presenting a tough challenge to Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, says he moved into the congressional district in the summer of 2012.



But records show he cast a vote from Manalapan, 52 miles to the south, in November, 2012 — more than two months after his campaign said he moved to Hackensack, in the 5th Congressional District.



"Roy Cho says he moved to Hackensack in the summer of 2012. So why then did he vote in Manalapan in November 2012?" said Garrett spokeswoman Maggie Seidel. "Either Roy Cho is lying about his residency in the Fifth District or he's acted illegally by committing voter fraud — or both."

U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5th Dist.) is shown in this 2012 file photo.

The records, provided by Garrett’s campaign, show Cho registered to vote in Hackensack in April of 2013 and began voting in the city’s May 2013 municipal elections.

Cho’s 2012 vote in Manalapan, where he grew up and his parents live, was his first vote in New Jersey since 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, the 33-year-old Cho lived in New York City, where he worked as a corporate lawyer. All of his previous votes were made in Manalapan as well.

Under New Jersey law, it's a second degree crime to cast ballots that are "known by the person to be materially false, fictitious or fraudulent." A Middlesex County judge, Spencer Robbins, resigned in March after he was charged with voting twice in Woodbridge while living in Chatham.

Derek Roseman, a spokesman for Cho, said the candidate never broke the law.

“In the days after Hurricane Sandy devastated New Jersey and Scott Garrett was twiddling his thumbs in Washington while other representatives took the lead to rush relief aid to our state, Roy exercised his Constitutionally protected right to vote in an important election, and the allegation that he did something wrong in doing so is false,” Roseman said.

Roseman said Cho still considered Manalapan his main home even when he lived in New York City, and it was not until early 2013 that he "felt he was a comfortable place to name Hackensack as his official home," even though his Hackesack lease was dated Sept. 1 2012. Roseman said Cho also paid his taxes in Manalapan in 2012. In 2013, in addition to changing his voter registration to Hackensack, Cho filed his taxes from there and switched his driver's license address to the city.

"This is just another desperate attempt by Scott Garrett, who has already lost his credibility after lying about his actions after Sandy, to try to distract voters from his extreme Tea Party record over the past 12 years," Roseman said. "His widely discredited campaign is grasping at a quickly diminishing number of straws as it rapidly loses support from voters."

A Monmouth University poll last week showed Garrett, a 12-year incumbent and New Jersey's most conservative congressman, leading Cho by a surprisingly close five-point margin, 48 percent to 43 percent.

Garrett has also been critical of Cho for not voting in several elections. The records show, for instance, that Cho did not vote in last year's special October election for U.S. Senate.

Matt Friedman may be reached at mfriedman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattFriedmanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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