New Jersey’s governor is pressing ahead with repairs to the Motor Vehicle Commission’s voter registration system rather than suspending automatic enrollment, even as another investigation uncovers hundreds of errors and 50 people who voted after being improperly registered.
TRENTON, NJ — Gov. Mikie Sherrill is moving forward with New Jersey’s automatic voter registration system at the Motor Vehicle Commission despite another round of troubling discoveries, including 750 additional registration errors, 340 potentially improper registrations linked to prison re-entry events, and 50 people who cast ballots after being registered due to a software malfunction.
The Democratic governor announced another round of reforms Wednesday, October 7, rather than suspending the automatic voter registration process that has been under scrutiny since July, when her administration disclosed that approximately 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens had been registered to vote.
The latest findings have prompted New Jersey Republican Party Chairwoman Christine Giordano Hanlon to demand a complete audit of the state’s voter rolls, arguing that the administration continues to uncover problems without fully addressing their scope.
“Why does Governor Sherrill continue to obfuscate the truth and incrementally announce ‘additional’ errors?” Hanlon asked. “It is time for a complete and total audit of our voter rolls.”
Sherrill doubles down on fixing automatic registration instead of suspending it
In her October 7 announcement, Sherrill outlined additional safeguards intended to prevent voter registration errors at MVC offices throughout the state.
The changes include daily automated audits comparing customers’ actual responses with voter registration records before they are transmitted to election officials, new procedures for flagging discrepancies and additional verification requirements at prison re-entry events.
The administration is also replacing the technology vendor associated with the earlier registration errors.
What Sherrill did not announce was a suspension of automatic voter registration while the state continues investigating the system.
“My Administration continues to move aggressively to fix the serious system error at the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) left behind by the previous administration to ensure our elections remain free, fair, and secure,” Sherrill said.
The governor said her administration had already begun implementing reforms and would continue investigating errors dating back several years.
“I promised we would be thorough to ensure that no one who is ineligible remains on the voter rolls, and that every eligible voter has their voice heard,” Sherrill said.
Another 750 registration errors discovered, including 50 people who voted
The latest review identified approximately 750 additional voter registration records affected by a software error between June 2023 and June 2024.
Those individuals answered “no” when asked whether they met the minimum voting age requirement. Despite those responses, their registration information was transmitted for processing.
The administration said birth dates confirmed that the individuals were old enough to vote, suggesting many mistakenly selected the wrong response on an electronic keypad.
However, their registrations were not legally valid because the required eligibility affirmation was not properly completed.
The state determined that approximately 380 people had no other registration and had not voted. Their records were placed in deleted status.
Another 320 had other potentially valid registrations, had voted and were referred to county election officials for review.
Most significantly, approximately 50 people were registered solely because of the error and subsequently voted.
Those 50 registrations are being deleted and referred to county election officials for further examination.
Sherrill said no underage person voted as a result of the error, but the discovery adds another group of voters whose registrations were not properly processed before ballots were cast.
Prison re-entry events reveal problems dating back a decade
The state’s investigation also uncovered approximately 340 potentially improper voter registrations associated with MVC services provided at correctional re-entry events.
Some records date to 2016, extending the timeline of identified registration problems beyond the 2023-2024 software malfunction.
According to the administration, some individuals incorrectly affirmed that they were eligible to vote despite still serving sentences of incarceration for indictable offenses.
New Jersey prohibits individuals currently incarcerated for felony convictions from voting, although voting rights are restored upon release.
The state also identified approximately 60 individuals who are currently incarcerated and whose records were flagged for county election officials to review.
The governor’s office said the records require individual examination to determine which registrations must be deleted.
“These issues had gone undetected and unaddressed, with some going as far back as a decade,” Sherrill said of the findings. “My Administration found them and moved immediately to fix them.”
Republicans say the latest findings prove a broader audit is needed
Hanlon, who previously raised concerns about the integrity of New Jersey’s voter registration records, said the new disclosures support her argument that the investigation should not be limited to the software malfunction identified between June 2023 and June 2024.
“When I announced my findings, I was chastised by my Democratic counterparts as they tried to sweep legitimate concerns about our election systems under the rug,” Hanlon said.
“If the Governor is announcing more errors today, within her arbitrary one-year window, we can AGAIN state that this is the tip of the iceberg.”
The NJGOP has previously demanded an expanded investigation and sought records concerning voter registrations outside the period initially identified by the administration.
Republicans argue that replacing a software vendor and announcing new procedures do not substitute for a comprehensive review of existing voter rolls.
The criticism comes as the state prepares for the November elections, when questions about voter eligibility and registration accuracy are likely to remain politically contentious.
Original scandal involved 6,600 registrations and hundreds of ballots
The controversy began July 21, when Sherrill acknowledged that approximately 6,600 individuals who answered “no” to a citizenship question at the MVC were nonetheless registered to vote.
The registrations occurred between June 2023 and June 2024 during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
By August, state officials reported that approximately 5,100 registrations had been deleted and another 1,450 had been placed in rejected status pending further review.
The administration also identified approximately 340 individuals who were newly registered because of the citizenship-related error and subsequently voted. Another 220 people affected by that error had voted but possessed previous registrations or other records potentially establishing eligibility.
Those cases are separate from the 50 voters identified in Wednesday’s new disclosure involving age-eligibility responses.
State officials have emphasized that individuals affected by the registration errors were not necessarily responsible for the mistakes and that some may have been legally eligible voters whose records were mishandled.
Automatic registration remains in place as investigation continues
Under New Jersey’s automatic voter registration law, eligible residents conducting certain transactions at the MVC are registered to vote unless they decline.
The governor’s latest plan preserves that system while adding checks intended to detect errors before registration records reach election officials.
Those safeguards include verification of citizenship responses, age eligibility and whether a customer declined registration. Inconsistent records are supposed to be flagged for manual review rather than transmitted automatically.
Additional changes include expanded language assistance, clearer registration questions and new eligibility confirmations at correctional re-entry events.
Sherrill defended the administration’s response, saying the review demonstrated her commitment to addressing previously undiscovered problems.
“I said we were going to run a secure and fair election here in New Jersey and I meant it,” Sherrill said.
The administration has not announced when its broader investigation will conclude or whether additional improperly processed registrations could be discovered.
For now, automatic voter registration remains part of New Jersey’s MVC operations, even as state and county election officials continue reviewing thousands of records affected by earlier failures.