My understanding is that deer are required for long-distance transport of black legged tick populations, but are not absolutely required to complete the full two-year life cycle.
Edit: as opposed to "wood" ticks (quite visibly distinctive http://www.tickencounter.org/tick_identification/rocky_mount... - in spite of their name, quite common in the woody regions of NJ), which don't carry Lyme disease. In my experience, this type of tick was much more common than the "deer" or "black legged" tick in NJ.