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A technical error allowed thousands of people who marked themselves as noncitizens to register to vote in New Jersey, Governor Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday, with a few hundred people going on to vote in elections.
Speaking Tuesday morning, Sherrill, a Democrat, said the error in the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) allowed those applying for driver’s licenses who marked themselves as noncitizens to register to vote, despite this not being legal.
The error took place between June 2023 and June 2024, when it was corrected, Sherrill said, but she only learned of the issue last Wednesday.
“Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted,” Sherrill said in a statement. “They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state.”
The governor said anyone illegally registered to vote would be removed from voter rolls, and called the lack of transparency by the previous administration “unacceptable” during a press conference.
Sherrill’s announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny by the Trump administration of how elections are managed by states, with concerns around noncitizen voting—something which is extremely rare—leading to President Donald Trump’s push for the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote.
New Jersey Voter Roll Error: What We Know
Sherrill said roughly 6,600 people who used the MVC’s software to apply for ID during the yearlong window and indicated they were not U.S. citizens were registered to vote because of a system error. Out of that group, fewer than 400 people scattered across New Jersey voted in subsequent elections.
The governor made it clear that this had happened under the previous administration, but that as soon as she had learned of the error, she had asked her Chief Counsel to launch an investigation.
Sherrill criticized the vendor for releasing the software with the error, and the MVC for failing to disclose the issue for two years.
“I am appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time,” Sherrill said in her statement. “This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now. I am taking action to prevent anything like it from occurring in the future and make sure those responsible are held accountable.”
During her press conference, the governor said she wanted a different culture in the state to ensure greater accountability from those in leadership.
Responding to the revelation Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin posted on X, “Just ONE illegal vote cancels out the vote of a U.S. citizen. As DHS reported last week—New Jersey could have as many as 35,152 potential non-citizens registered to vote.
“Looking forward to working with you to secure your elections in the future,” Mullin added in response to Sherrill.
Would New Jersey Results Be Affected?
While Sherrill said about 400 noncitizens were able to vote because of a software error, that figure was unlikely to have affected the outcome of recent statewide races in New Jersey.
In the 2025 gubernatorial election, more than 3 million ballots were cast when Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli by several hundred thousand votes. Likewise, former Vice President Kamala Harris carried New Jersey in the 2024 presidential election by roughly 260,000 votes.
Four hundred votes would represent only a tiny fraction of the statewide electorate—around one-hundredth of 1 percent in a high-turnout statewide contest.
Election experts generally note that a number of that size would be unlikely to change statewide results with margins in the tens or hundreds of thousands. However, it could be more consequential in an unusually close local, legislative, or congressional race if those ballots were concentrated in a single contest rather than spread across multiple elections.
The Trump Admin’s Election Integrity Concerns
The revelation out of New Jersey comes as the White House pushes Congress to pass new voter ID laws, which would require people registering to vote to prove they are American citizens.
The SAVE America Act has been slowly making its way through Congress, with Republicans somewhat torn on the legislation over concerns that the measures will mean some Americans are unable to vote.
Trump and others within the GOP have also repeatedly made claims that immigrants are voting in elections—part of the reasoning for the SAVE Act—and that this has led to gains for the Democratic Party.
Most investigations by state election officials, courts, and independent researchers have found that confirmed cases of noncitizens voting represent a tiny fraction of ballots cast. Reviews of allegations across all 50 states have consistently found that initial claims often shrink dramatically after records are checked and potential matches are investigated.
“Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity,” Sherrill said in her statement. “For more than ten years, he has worked to undermine Americans’ faith in our elections by spreading lies about legitimate election results, attempting to overturn a free and fair election, encouraging an attack on our Capitol when he couldn’t accept the will of the voters, and defunding election security at the federal level.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Sam Wilson.
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