Gov. Mikie Sherrill has spent considerable time blaming former President Donald Trump for declining public confidence in American elections. Yet when her own administration disclosed that approximately 6,600 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens were mistakenly registered to vote in New Jersey, the governor offered few details about the most important questions still facing the public.
According to Sherrill, a preliminary review found that fewer than 400 people who were newly registered because of the error actually cast ballots. If that figure is accurate, those votes deserve far more scrutiny than they have received.
Instead, much of the governor’s statement turned into a political attack on Trump, accusing him of undermining faith in elections. Regardless of one’s political views, New Jersey residents deserve answers about what happened inside their own state’s election system before hearing another speech about national politics.
Several questions remain unanswered.
The administration has not released the counties or municipalities where the registrations occurred. It has not identified which elections those ballots were cast in, whether they affected local, county, state, or federal races, or whether any of those ballots have been referred to prosecutors for investigation.
Those are not political questions. They are basic transparency questions.
The governor also blamed a “software error” in the Motor Vehicle Commission system and announced she would replace the vendor. But IDEMIA, the company that operates the MVC voter registration interface, has publicly disputed that characterization.
According to IDEMIA, its role is limited to transmitting voter registration information to the New Jersey Division of Elections. The company says the Division of Elections—not the vendor—is ultimately responsible for validating and adjudicating every voter registration before a person is added to the voter rolls.
If IDEMIA’s description is accurate, the issue may extend beyond software and raise questions about how New Jersey’s voter verification process functioned during the period in question.
Perhaps the most significant unanswered question is whether anyone who illegally voted will face prosecution.
A bigger, and independent investigation is warranted. This is not just a small mistake. This is a window into the catastrophic voting laws passed by New Jersey Democrats over the past 8 years.
What the law says
Federal law limits voting in federal elections to U.S. citizens. Knowingly making a false claim of U.S. citizenship to register to vote or voting unlawfully in a federal election can result in criminal penalties, including fines, imprisonment, and immigration consequences for non-citizens, including removal from the United States.
New Jersey law also restricts voting to eligible U.S. citizens who meet the state’s residency and registration requirements. Knowingly registering or voting when ineligible, or making false statements on voter registration documents, can constitute criminal offenses under state law. The specific charges depend on the circumstances and the evidence of intent.
Those laws exist to protect election integrity regardless of political party.
The governor has stated that the individuals who were registered through the reported error answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens, suggesting they did not falsely claim citizenship during the MVC transaction.
They say it was an honest mistake, but these people then willingly used that mistake to commit election fraud and voted illegally. They knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew it was illegal, but they did it anyway.
Whether any criminal liability exists for those who later voted would depend on the facts of each case, including how they were registered, whether they knew they were ineligible, and what prosecutors can prove under applicable law.
Those determinations belong to investigators and the courts—not politicians and definitely not Democrat New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill.
If nearly 400 ineligible ballots were cast, the public deserves to know whether those cases are being reviewed, whether any referrals have been made to law enforcement, and whether criminal charges will be pursued where the evidence supports them.
This admission by the governor leaves one gaping hole in the entire story. She admitted that 6,600 people clicked no on the form and 400 voted.
What she’s not telling us is how many people clicked Yes, and how many of those voted.
The bigger issue is 400 is all we have been told. Sherrill left the door open for more findings, but we’re not sure how aggressively her administration will continue with the investigation. It’s not in her best political interest to find more voter fraud.
Election integrity is strengthened by transparency and accountability. The public should expect both, regardless of which party occupies the governor’s office.
