Blue State Claims ‘Glitch’ Registered Thousands of Non-Citizens to Vote

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed Tuesday that a serious software failure in the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission system improperly registered approximately 6,600 non-U.S. citizens to vote, despite those individuals explicitly indicating that they were not citizens.

The registrations occurred between June 2023 and June 2024 under the administration of former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Sherrill, who took office in 2026, said she learned about the problem last week and immediately ordered an investigation.

“Last week I learned that a serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, almost three years prior to my taking office,” Sherrill stated.

“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 added.

The disclosure represents an extraordinary breakdown in one of the most basic safeguards of election administration. Federal and New Jersey law restrict voting in federal and statewide elections to eligible American citizens, yet the state’s automated system apparently ignored direct declarations of noncitizenship and sent thousands of individuals into the voter-registration process anyway.

Sherrill placed responsibility for the failure on the previous administration and said she ordered her chief counsel to determine how the error occurred and why it was not disclosed sooner.

“This happened under the previous administration and, upon learning this information, I immediately ordered my chief counsel to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of what occurred,” Sherrill said.

“I also ordered the removal of any residents from our voter rolls who were erroneously added between June 2023 and June 2024. The new MVC Administrator that I appointed has begun the process of replacing the vendor responsible for administering the system,” Sherrill continued.

State officials said the affected registrations are being removed and that the outside vendor responsible for administering the system will be replaced. The governor also promised that the investigation’s findings would be made public.

A preliminary review determined that fewer than 400 of the approximately 6,600 people registered through the error later cast ballots. The individuals were registered across Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated categories and were geographically dispersed throughout New Jersey.

The available information does not establish that the votes changed the outcome of any particular election. But whether a race was ultimately decided by those ballots is not the only question that matters.

Election laws are supposed to prevent ineligible registrations before ballots are issued—not discover thousands of improper registrations years later and then argue that the total was probably too small to matter.

Every unlawful ballot has the potential to cancel out the vote of an eligible American citizen. Maintaining accurate voter rolls is therefore not a partisan preference. It is a fundamental responsibility of state government.

Sherrill emphasized her military and legal background while promising accountability.

“I want to underscore how seriously I take this matter. As a military veteran who swore an oath to defend our Constitution, and as a former federal prosecutor, I believe the integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy,” Sherrill said.

“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. This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now. I am taking action to prevent anything like it from occurring in the future and make sure those responsible are held accountable,” Sherrill added.

The governor deserves credit for publicly acknowledging the problem and beginning corrective action. Her statement, however, also attempted to redirect part of the controversy toward President Donald Trump, accusing his administration of politicizing election security.

That criticism is difficult to reconcile with the facts Sherrill herself disclosed.

For years, conservatives who raised concerns about automatic motor-voter registration systems were frequently dismissed as conspiracy theorists or accused of attempting to suppress legitimate voters. New Jersey has now admitted that its own system registered thousands of people after they affirmatively stated that they were not American citizens.

The New Jersey Republican Party’s Election Integrity Task Force announced in June that public-record reviews had identified hundreds of noncitizens who had appeared on voter rolls. The party also alleged that at least 30 documented noncitizens had cast ballots, though those claims were based on the party’s own investigation and were not identical to the newly disclosed software-error cases.

The state’s admission nevertheless confirms the central concern raised by election-integrity advocates: A motor-vehicle registration system that serves citizens and noncitizens alike requires reliable safeguards to prevent ineligible applicants from being placed on voter rolls.

New Jersey allows noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses and state identification cards. That policy does not itself grant voting rights, but it makes effective citizenship screening essential whenever motor-vehicle records are integrated with voter registration.

The apparent failure was especially glaring because the affected individuals did not falsely claim to be citizens. They reportedly answered “no” when asked about citizenship, yet the software registered them anyway.

That fact also raises questions about whether the individuals who subsequently voted understood that they were ineligible. Sherrill said New Jersey would not pursue state prosecutions because the registrations resulted from the government’s error. The Justice Department and other federal authorities have not publicly announced whether they will independently review the ballots.

The investigation must determine far more than which line of computer code malfunctioned.

State officials should establish when the error began, who knew about it, whether warnings were ignored, how the registrations passed through additional verification processes and why the public was not informed during the Murphy administration.

Officials must also verify that every affected record has been removed without mistakenly purging eligible naturalized citizens. Election integrity requires both preventing illegal participation and protecting every qualified American’s lawful right to vote.

Sherrill’s decision to replace the vendor is an appropriate first step, but software companies should not become convenient scapegoats for government officials who failed to supervise systems carrying out a core constitutional function.

The state selected the technology, established the procedures and remained responsible for auditing the results. A competent election system should have detected thousands of registrations that directly contradicted the applicants’ citizenship responses.

President Trump and congressional Republicans have advocated stronger citizenship-verification standards, arguing that states should not rely exclusively on unchecked automated systems or self-attestation.

Democrats have repeatedly characterized such proposals as unnecessary because noncitizen voting is uncommon. The New Jersey failure demonstrates why rarity is not an excuse for weak safeguards. A system that improperly registers even one ineligible person needs correction; a system that registers approximately 6,600 demands a full public accounting.

The central question is not whether Republicans or Democrats gained more votes from the error. The central question is whether New Jersey maintained a registration system worthy of public confidence.

By the governor’s own account, it did not.

Sherrill has promised accountability. New Jersey voters should expect names, findings, corrective measures and a transparent explanation of how thousands of noncitizens were placed on the rolls despite telling the government they were ineligible.