New Jersey discovered that roughly 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote between 2023 and 2024 due to a software malfunction in the state's motor vehicle licensing system, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday. About 400 of those individuals cast ballots, though Sherrill said there is currently no evidence that any election outcome was altered by their votes.
The registrations stemmed from a flaw in New Jersey's Motor Vehicle System that persisted for a full year, from June 2023 through June 2024. Noncitizens who answered "no" when asked if they were U.S. citizens during driver's license or identification card applications were registered to vote anyway, bypassing the citizenship requirement.
The registered noncitizens were distributed across party lines and throughout the state. Sherrill, a Democrat, said investigators have not yet determined which specific elections they participated in. The governor's office is now scrubbing the voter rolls to remove the affected registrations.
Sherrill confirmed the state identified the problem on Wednesday, just two days before the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin sent a letter claiming 35,000 noncitizens were registered in New Jersey and demanding the state respond within two weeks. The governor said she asked DHS for evidence of that claim and received nothing in return.
The discovery carries political weight as the Trump administration pushes the SAVE America Act, which would require photo identification and citizenship proof at the ballot box. Trump recently delivered a primetime White House speech promoting the legislation, citing concerns about noncitizen voting.
Sherrill pushed back against using the error as ammunition for such arguments. "As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections," she said. "Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity."
She also resisted federal pressure to hand over voter data, citing concerns the administration would misuse personal information. When Mullin responded to Sherrill's disclosure by expressing a desire to work together on election security, she remained noncommittal about collaboration.
The New Jersey case dwarfs similar errors uncovered recently in other states. Oregon discovered roughly 1,200 noncitizens on its rolls from an administrative mistake, with nine actually casting ballots. California reported in 2018 that approximately 1,500 noncitizens may have been accidentally registered. Election experts note such errors happen occasionally across a nation with nearly 300 million registered voters, though New Jersey's scale suggests an unusually significant failure.
Sherrill criticized the prior administration under Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, under whose tenure the software error occurred. She said Murphy's team should have caught and corrected the problem years ago. "It is unacceptable that no one in the prior administration brought this to light, demanded accountability or took action when it happened years ago," Sherrill said. Murphy did not immediately comment on the allegation.
The governor announced her office is investigating the malfunction and will hold responsible parties accountable. She said the state will replace Idemia, the vendor responsible for the software error, to prevent recurrence.
Sherrill expressed concern that the noncitizens who were mistakenly registered could face immigration consequences as a result of the state's administrative failure. She said charging them would be inappropriate. "It would be the utmost in hypocrisy for the state to charge them when it's our fault," the governor said.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Sherrill's swift acknowledgment and corrective action stand in sharp contrast to the federal theater around this issue, but the scale of the mistake raises legitimate questions about how the state's election infrastructure allowed such a gap to persist for an entire year."
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