Thousands of individuals who were not U.S. citizens were accidentally added to New Jersey’s voter rolls because of a technical problem in the state’s Motor Vehicle System. The issue occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, before the current governor took office. People applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards answered ‘no’ when asked if they were citizens, but the system still registered them to vote. This mistake led to roughly 6,600 people being added to the voter rolls despite their own statements that they were not U.S. citizens.
A preliminary review found that fewer than 400 of these individuals actually cast ballots in elections. No evidence exists that any election results were affected by this error. The current governor ordered the removal of those who were registered incorrectly and launched an investigation into how it happened. The problem occurred under the previous administration, which was led by a Democrat.
The state has begun replacing the vendor responsible for the system. A new company will take over, with a new system expected to be in place next year. The governor expressed strong disapproval of the failures that allowed this error to happen and said accountability must begin now. She emphasized that the issue did not occur during her time in office.
The announcement came shortly after the Department of Homeland Security reported similar problems in several states, including California, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Those reports claimed hundreds of thousands of noncitizens were on voter rolls in those areas. However, no details were provided about how those numbers were calculated or whether any of those individuals voted.
Critics have pointed out that the incident could be used to support false claims about widespread fraud in U.S. elections. The current governor responded by criticizing President Donald Trump for spreading misinformation on election integrity. She said his statements do not reflect real concerns and that he has worked to erode public trust in elections over many years.
Some state lawmakers from the opposing party also criticized the situation, calling it a failure of election security. They argued that voter ID laws could have helped catch these issues earlier. Others noted that some of those registered were seeking naturalization and had asked to be removed from the rolls because they did not know how they became registered.
Experts said administrative errors like this one are rare and affect only a tiny portion of eligible voters. The number of people affected in New Jersey is less than 0.1% of all registered voters. Even the potential number of votes cast by those incorrectly registered would represent less than 0.01% of total ballots cast in the most recent election.
The governor reaffirmed her commitment to ensuring that every eligible citizen can vote and that election integrity remains strong. She said she will continue working to protect the fairness and accuracy of voting processes in the state.
IMAGE: Mikie Sherrill standing in New Jersey’s 11th district.. Photo: Joeshmonobody / Wikimedia, taken 2018-04-10, CC BY-SA 4.0
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