New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said on Tuesday that a software error at the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) resulted in approximately 6,600 non-citizens being registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024.
According to the governor, the problem occurred when individuals applying for driver’s licenses or state identification cards answered “no” to the citizenship question but were nevertheless automatically enrolled through the voter registration system.
Sherrill said the state has hired an independent firm to investigate how the error occurred and whether additional safeguards are needed.
Officials said that while the vast majority of those improperly registered did not vote, roughly 400 individuals are believed to have cast ballots.
“We have no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed,” Sherrill said during a briefing.
The governor said she became aware of the issue on July 15 and had also received a letter from the Trump administration warning that as many as 35,000 people might have been improperly registered in New Jersey.
Sherrill said state officials have asked the administration to provide evidence supporting that larger figure.
“We have asked them for any evidence of this, where they got that number, who this is,” she said. “We’ve received nothing back yet.”
The disclosure is likely to intensify the national debate over election security and voter registration systems. Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that states are not doing enough to prevent improper voter registration and illegal voting.
Sherrill pushed back against that argument, accusing Trump of undermining confidence in elections.
“I think that Donald Trump has done more to undermine free elections in this country than certainly anyone in my lifetime,” she said.
New Jersey election officials said they are reviewing the affected registrations and working to remove ineligible voters from the rolls where appropriate. The independent investigation is expected to examine the software system, administrative procedures and whether similar errors occurred outside the identified period.
The issue has become one of the most significant election administration problems disclosed by New Jersey in recent years, although state officials maintain that they have found no evidence that the error changed the outcome of any election.