A “wild deed” is a deed that purports to convey an interest in property that the grantor does not own. Back in the 1960s, a title insurance executive named Paul Burgess tried to make himself the owner of several thousand acres in the Pinelands by using a wild deed from one of his employees to get the vacant property back on the tax rolls before bringing an action to quiet title. The New Jersey courts ultimately held in a suit by the attorney general, Hyland v. Kirkman, that the wild deed was a nullity and the scheme a fraud on the recording system.

We were reminded of this bit of arcane New Jersey legal history by last week’s news that Republican presidential elector candidates in five states carried by President Biden had certified themselves as those states’ electors and sent the false certifications to the National Archives in the apparent hope that the conflicting certifications would void those states’ electoral votes and throw the election into the House of Representatives.

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