SerpApi.Org
As many as 6,600 non-U.S. citizens registered to vote in New Jersey in 2023 and 2024 because of a software flaw, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday, July 21.
At a Statehouse press event, Sherrill explained that she found out last week about the flaw, which occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, years before she took office. The governor explained that less than 400 of those people actually voted and were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated in all parts of the state.
How were the erroneous NJ voter registrations created?
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Sherrill explained that non-citizens involved had answered “no” while applying for their driver licenses and identification cards with the Motor Vehicle Commission but were registered to vote anyway.
“This happened under the previous administration and, upon learning this information, I immediately ordered my chief counsel to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of what occurred,” Sherrill said. “I also ordered the removal of any residents from our voter rolls who were erroneously added between June 2023 and June 2024.”
Sherrill noted that she takes such matters seriously, both as a “military veteran who swore an oath to defend our Constitution and as a former federal prosecutor.”
New Jersey's MVC was working with IDEMIA, an "identity security" company that works with both state governments and the federal government on a range of things including electronic fingerprints and licensing. IDEMIA is responsible for the nation's TSA PreCheck system and their website boasts of the work they do in the national security sphere to "enable U.S. Federal Law Enforcement and Homeland Security missions" and provide support for the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, Department of State and the United States Postal Service.
Sherrill: 'This entire situation is unacceptable'
She said she was “appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time.”
“Let me be clear, this entire situation is unacceptable,” Sherrill said. “It’s unacceptable that the vendor released software with such a glaring error. It’s unacceptable that the MVC took a year to get this issue fixed and it’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability or took action when it happened years ago.”
Rosalie Johnson, chief administrator of the agency, said they were actively working with a new vendor to make sure such errors didn't happen again.
There were 6,688,367 registered voters in New Jersey as of last month’s primary election, according to the state’s Division of Elections.
Sherrill takes a swipe at Trump's elections push
Sherrill's announcement came days after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin asked election officials in New Jersey and three other states to check voter rolls for people who are not U.S. citizens.
The governor said she is doing what she can to preserve the integrity of elections, unlike the Trump administration.
“Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity,” she said. “For more than 10 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.”
Sherrill went on to say that her administration is not in the habit of providing voter information to the federal government and would not be doing so now in order to protect the people who were registered through no fault of their own.
Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: More than 6,600 non-citizens were registered to vote in NJ in 2023-24
