A Democratic governor has confirmed that thousands of people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens were placed on New Jersey’s voter rolls. The Justice Department is now demanding answers.
New Jersey has officially acknowledged a serious breakdown in its voter registration system: approximately 6,600 people who explicitly indicated that they were not United States citizens were nevertheless registered to vote.
Fewer than 400 of those individuals subsequently cast ballots, according to a preliminary state review.
The disclosure came from Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who said the registrations occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, during the previous Democratic administration of Gov. Phil Murphy.
The state is now removing the erroneous registrations, replacing the technology vendor associated with the system and investigating how applicants who answered “no” to the citizenship question were still added to New Jersey’s voter rolls.
The Justice Department has opened a federal investigation and demanded detailed information about the affected voters and the ballots they cast.
They answered “no” but were registered anyway
The problem reportedly arose when people applied for driver’s licenses or state identification cards through the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.
Applicants were asked on a keypad whether they were U.S. citizens. Approximately 6,600 people answered “no,” but the system registered them to vote anyway.
“These individuals answered ‘no’ when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen when applying for drivers’ licenses and identification cards, but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway,” Sherrill said in her official statement.
The governor said she ordered the removal of anyone erroneously placed on the voter rolls and launched an investigation after learning about the problem.
Her administration’s preliminary analysis found that fewer than 400 people registered through the error later voted.
They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across New Jersey. Party registration, however, does not establish which candidates they supported.
One of Trump’s warnings has now been officially confirmed
The admission confirms at least one of President Donald Trump’s repeated warnings about election administration: noncitizens can be placed on voter rolls, and some can proceed to cast ballots.
That does not prove every broader allegation Trump has made about American elections. It does, however, make it significantly more difficult to continue claiming that noncitizen registration and voting simply never happen or that Trump was entirely wrong to raise the issue.
This is no longer a hypothetical concern or an unverified social-media accusation. A Democratic governor has officially acknowledged thousands of improper registrations and hundreds of resulting votes.
Whether those ballots affected any election remains unknown. Sherrill said the state currently has no evidence that the improperly cast ballots changed an election result.
But statewide totals alone cannot answer that question. The relevant information is where and when the ballots were cast. A few hundred votes scattered across New Jersey might not affect a statewide contest, but municipal and local elections can be decided by only a handful of votes.
Investigators will therefore need to determine which elections and districts were involved.
The 6,600 cases may not represent the entire problem
The disclosed cases involve people who apparently answered the citizenship question honestly.
They selected “no,” clearly indicating that they were not U.S. citizens, yet were still registered.
That raises another important question: What happened when an applicant selected “yes”?
It is not yet known whether the state independently verified the citizenship information submitted by every applicant or primarily relied on self-identification. It is also unknown whether any noncitizens incorrectly claimed citizenship, were registered and later voted.
No public evidence has established that such an additional group exists. It would therefore be irresponsible to claim that thousands more fraudulent voters have already been discovered.
Nevertheless, determining whether applicants who selected “yes” were independently checked should now become one of the central questions in the federal investigation.
The 6,600 known cases demonstrate what happened when applicants gave the state the correct answer. Investigators must now determine whether the system could also detect an incorrect answer.
Software failure or government failure?
Sherrill attributed the registrations to a serious software error and said New Jersey had begun replacing IDEMIA, the vendor administering the Motor Vehicle Commission system.
IDEMIA responded by emphasizing that its role was to transmit information—not to make the final eligibility determination.
“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,” the company said. “Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections.”
The company’s full statement does not prove intentional wrongdoing. But it directly raises the question of why state election officials failed to stop registrations belonging to people who had already declared themselves noncitizens.
Calling the incident a “software error” does not fully explain why the state’s required verification procedures also failed.
Justice Department demands the records
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has requested the identities and voting records of the approximately 6,600 affected people.
The Justice Department reportedly wants:
- Names and dates of birth;
- Nationalities and residential addresses;
- Registration dates and locations;
- Records showing when and where ballots were cast;
- Certification and signature records connected to mail voting.
New Jersey was given five business days to provide the information.
“Ensuring that U.S. citizens’ votes are not illegally diluted by noncitizens’ votes is of paramount importance,” Dhillon wrote, according to ABC News.
Federal investigators must now verify the state’s numbers, determine whether the people were still noncitizens when they voted and examine the circumstances of every ballot.
Could the voters be prosecuted or deported?
Noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections and most state and local elections. Unlawful voting can produce serious consequences, including criminal prosecution, denial of naturalization and possible removal from the United States.
But deportation is not automatic.
The government will have to examine each person’s citizenship and immigration status, the election in which the vote was cast, the applicable law and what the person understood after being registered by the state.
The individuals involved should not automatically be described as undocumented immigrants. Some could be lawful permanent residents or possess another legal immigration status while remaining ineligible to vote.
The registration error may have been the government’s fault, but investigators will still need to determine whether any individual knowingly cast a ballot despite understanding that only citizens were eligible.
Questions New Jersey must answer
Removing the registrations is only the beginning. New Jersey officials still need to explain:
- Why did the system ignore an applicant’s “no” answer?
- Why did the Division of Elections fail to catch the registrations?
- When did state officials first discover the problem?
- Why was it not publicly disclosed earlier?
- In which elections were the ballots cast?
- Did any ballots affect close local races?
- Were applicants who claimed citizenship independently verified?
- Did similar failures occur outside the disclosed period?
The available evidence does not yet establish an organized Democratic conspiracy or prove that an election was overturned.
It does establish a serious failure under a Democratic administration: thousands of self-identified noncitizens were registered, the state’s verification process did not stop them, and fewer than 400 went on to vote.
That fact is no longer an allegation from Donald Trump.
It is now an official admission from the governor of New Jersey.
Official Sources and Further Reading
- State of New Jersey — Official Statement by Governor Mikie Sherrill
- ABC News — New Jersey Registered 6,600 Noncitizens; DOJ Requests Voting Records
- IDEMIA Statement — Vendor Responds to New Jersey’s Registration Controversy
- U.S. Department of Justice — Authority to Obtain and Review Statewide Voter-Roll Data
- USCIS Policy Manual — Unlawful Voting and Immigration Consequences