NEW JERSEY—Just hours after New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that a “software error” in the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission system led to thousands of non-U.S. citizens being added to voter rolls, the software vendor, IDEMIA, said Tuesday night that the state Division of Elections bears ultimate responsibility for verifying voter eligibility. Now, New Jersey Republican lawmakers are pushing to form a special committee with subpoena power to compel Gov. Sherrill and the Division of Elections to turn over all the files on thousands of noncitizens registering to vote to comply with the Department of Justice’s investigation on the matter.
“NJ Gov. Sherrill stated that 400 non-citizens voted in elections,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who helms the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, wrote on X. “This is unacceptable and illegal! The @CivilRights Division @TheJusticeDept is investigating this unlawful dilution of American votes.”
Governor Sherrill announced on July 21 that a “software error” in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission system that led to roughly 6,600 non-U.S. citizens being added to voter rolls from June 2023 to June 2024, despite them answering “no” to citizenship questions during driver’s license or ID applications. Preliminary findings indicate that roughly 6% (or 400) of these persons have voted.
“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,” said Governor Sherrill in a presser. “I also ordered the removal of any residents from our voter rolls who were erroneously added between June 2023 and June 2024. The new MVC Administrator that I appointed has begun the process of replacing the vendor responsible for administering the system.”
IDEMIA, which has worked with the MVC for more than 40 years, said its role is limited to transmitting voter registration information through the motor vehicle system when eligible individuals apply for or renew a driver’s license or state-issued identification card.
“The voter registration information is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote,” IDEMIA wrote in a statement. “Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections.”
Following Sherrill’s announcement, President Donald J Trump took to X encouraging the passage of the SAVE America Act: “Yet another reason to PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT! It would require states to submit voter rolls to the USCIS/DHS SAVE system for citizenship verification (which New Jersey currently does not do) — preventing this exact scenario from happening in the first place.”
Now, Sherrill has until close of business on July 28 to provide the DOJ the full names, birthdates, nationalities, residential addresses, and registration dates and locations al all 6,600 non-citizens registered to vote.
Gov. Sherrill’s disclosure comes some four months after the DOJ filed a lawsuit against New Jersey to compel the state to provide its full voter registration lists — including sensitive details such as full names, dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
New Jersey officials, including the state Attorney General, have stated they will fight the DOJ’s lawsuit in court, arguing it is an overreach and raises serious privacy concerns for voters—same arguments as Washington state officials for not releasing Washington’s full voter registration lists.
Just as Washington state, New Jersey has motor voter registration. Since 2018, New Jersey has had Automatic Voter Registration through its Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). Eligible citizens are automatically registered to vote (or have their information updated) unless they actively opt out. The software glitch announced by Governor Sherrill on Tuesday occurred within this Motor Vehicle Commission voter registration system.
Glenn Morgan, of We the Governed and the Washington Voter Research Project, has been one of the most prominent voices raising concerns around Washington state’s Department of Licensing (DOL) and voter registration, particularly involving non-citizens.
Morgan and other election integrity advocates argue that Washington’s integration of motor voter / automatic voter registration (AVR) with the DOL creates a structural vulnerability that can result in non-citizens being registered to vote.
Washington law requires the DOL to offer voter registration when people apply for or renew a driver’s license or state ID. However, a key provision (RCW 46.20.155(3)) states that licensing agents are only prohibited from proceeding with voter registration questions if the applicant presents documentation proving they are NOT a U.S. citizen— which creates a default presumption that a person is a citizen unless s/he proactively proves otherwise.
RCW 46.20.155 Section 3 reads: “If an applicant presents a document demonstrating that the applicant is not a United States citizen at the time of the driver’s license or identicard transaction, the licensing agent shall not ask the questions described in subsection (1) of this section, and shall not submit an application. The department, in consultation with the secretary of state, shall determine which types of documents accepted by the department for purposes of a driver’s license or identicard transaction demonstrate that an applicant is not a United States citizen at the time of the transaction.”
Morgan argues that without robust, upfront citizenship verification for everyone, non-citizens can end up on the voter rolls and receive a ballot.
Washington state officials have repeatedly stated that rumors of the DOL auto-registering non-citizens are false and have strongly push back against Morgan’s claims stating that non-citizens are not automatically registered to vote arguing that voter registration requires an attestation of U.S. citizenship under penalty of perjury, and that the person’s identity is cross-checked against DOL and Social Security Administration records. The Social Security Administration, however, does issue SSNs to non-citizens who are lawfully present in the U.S. and have work authorization.
Author: Mario Lotmore
