- New Jersey initially disclosed that roughly 6,600 people who identified themselves as noncitizens were improperly registered through the Motor Vehicle Commission system between June 2023 and June 2024.
- Sherrill initially said fewer than 400 people registered through the error voted; an August update put the number of newly registered voters who cast ballots at approximately 340, with hundreds of additional records requiring further review.
- The Department of Homeland Security separately says as many as 35,152 noncitizens may be on New Jersey’s voter rolls, a figure the state has challenged and DHS has not publicly substantiated with individual records.
TRENTON, NJ — Gov. Mikie Sherrill says there is no evidence that New Jersey’s noncitizen voter-registration failure changed the outcome of an election, even as her administration continues reviewing thousands of registrations and the Trump administration presses a separate claim that more than 35,000 potential noncitizens may be on the state’s voter rolls.
The controversy began when Sherrill disclosed in July that a Motor Vehicle Commission system error had improperly registered roughly 6,600 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024. Those applicants had answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens, according to the governor, but were registered anyway. Sherrill initially said fewer than 400 subsequently cast ballots. The error occurred during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
The administration provided more detail Aug. 19, saying approximately 340 people newly registered because of the error had voted. Another roughly 220 people affected by the software problem also voted but had previous registrations or separate eligibility attestations that could indicate valid registrations, and their cases were referred for additional review. The state also placed about 1,450 registrations into rejected status pending county-level eligibility reviews. (
The state’s findings have fueled a broader confrontation with the Trump administration over noncitizen voting and New Jersey’s voter rolls. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said federal data indicates there may be as many as 35,152 noncitizens registered in New Jersey and later suggested the number “may only be the beginning.” That federal figure remains disputed: DHS has not publicly released the underlying individual records or methodology necessary to establish that all 35,152 are currently noncitizens and improperly registered.
Sherrill has continued to reject Trump’s broader characterization of the problem. “I think what the people of New Jersey want to see is a transparent, accountable government so they understand what’s going on and how it’s going to be fixed and rectified,” Sherrill said in recent remarks. She accused Trump of “making spurious claims, presenting no evidence, constantly hiding the ball from people.”
The dispute is not over whether noncitizens were erroneously registered through the MVC system — New Jersey has acknowledged that failure and that some of those registrants voted. The unresolved questions concern the final number of ineligible voters who cast ballots, whether any did so knowingly, the accuracy of DHS’s much larger estimate and whether any race was affected. Sherrill has said the state has no evidence that an election outcome was swayed.
The controversy has also produced a political and legal fight over responsibility. Sherrill blamed a software failure and ordered an investigation, while IDEMIA, the technology vendor involved in the MVC system, disputed the suggestion that its software was responsible, saying voter eligibility ultimately had to be validated by the New Jersey Division of Elections. Republican lawmakers have meanwhile sought broader investigations into how the registrations were accepted and why the problem was not disclosed earlier.
Federal authorities have also pursued the issue separately. The Justice Department previously sought access to New Jersey’s statewide voter-registration database, but a federal judge dismissed that case after finding the government relied on a statute that did not authorize the records request at issue. Federal prosecutors have separately charged at least eight noncitizens with illegally voting in New Jersey elections between 2020 and 2024.
New Jersey’s investigation and county reviews remain ongoing as election officials work to determine which registrations must be removed and which involve people who can establish eligibility.
