Thousands of non-citizens registered to vote in NJ due to software error, governor says

More than 6,000 non-citizens were accidentally added to New Jersey’s voter rolls due to a software error at the state Motor Vehicles Commission, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday, with “fewer than 400” of them casting ballots in various elections since 2023.

The stunning announcement comes amid a push by President Donald Trump’s administration to crack down on non-citizen voting, which the president claims — frequently without factual basis — aids Democrats in elections. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that New Jersey had more than 35,000 non-citizens on its voting rolls.

Sherrill said on Tuesday that the MVC error — which lasted from June 2023 until June 2024, predating her own tenure as governor by several years — arose during the application process for drivers’ licenses and ID cards. Around 6,600 individuals marked themselves as non-citizens when they applied but were added to voter rolls anyway, according to Sherrill. The accidental voters were “scattered across the state” and registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters.

Sherrill, speaking with reporters at a hastily scheduled press conference, said there’s no immediate proof that any of the roughly 400 non-citizens who cast ballots impacted the outcome of any individual election.

“We have no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed,” said Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in January.

The governor said that her administration’s motor vehicles commissioner, who took office at the beginning of this year, has begun removing the erroneous voters from the rolls, and that she’s directed her chief counsel to conduct an investigation into the error.

“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.”