New Jersey mistakenly registered 6,600 apparent noncitizens to vote over the course of a year, including hundreds who went on to improperly cast ballots, according to Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D).
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Sherrill attributed the incident to a software error on Tuesday, less than a week after President Donald Trump used a White House speech to argue that voting by noncitizens was a major problem. Studies have found that noncitizen voting is rare, but Sherrill’s announcement shows that it does happen.
“I am appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time,” Sherrill said in a social media post, which noted that the problem occurred before she won the governorship last year.
People who indicated on a keypad that they were noncitizens when applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards from June 2023 to June 2024 were nonetheless registered to vote, Sherrill said. An initial review found that fewer than 400 of them later voted, she said.
Sherrill said she learned of the problem last week and ordered the removal of ineligible voters from the rolls. The state is replacing the vendor that oversees the system, she said.
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The registrations included Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, the governor said.
The problem gives Trump a new talking point as he pushes Congress to pass legislation requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. The measure remains stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Trump contended in his Thursday prime-time speech that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are on the rolls across the country, a claim that election officials and experts called greatly exaggerated.
“Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity,” Sherrill said in a statement.
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