A technical error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) software improperly registered roughly 6,600 non-citizens to vote between June 2023 and June 2024, Governor Mikie Sherrill announced on Tuesday.
According to state officials, preliminary reviews show that fewer than 400 of those erroneously enrolled individuals went on to cast ballots.
The White House seized upon the disclosure to press Republican President Donald Trump’s longstanding claim that voting by non-citizens is widespread, for which he has not presented evidence.
Studies show such incidents are rare and often a result of error rather than fraudulent intent.
Trump has stepped up his assertions that November’s midterm elections could be compromised unless stricter safeguards are adopted, and delivered a prime-time speech last Thursday focused on election security.
The president and his allies claim that Democrats benefit from non-citizen voting, although they have provided no supporting evidence.
He has been also pushing Republican members of Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote.
The erroneous registrations spanned Democratic, Republican, and unaffiliated voter affiliations across multiple counties.
Officials noted there is no indication that any election outcome was altered as a result.
Governor Sherrill outlined several immediate steps being taken by the state.
The Division of Elections and county clerks are removing all affected individuals from state voter rolls and the state is also terminating its relationship with vendor and transitioning to a new system administrator.
Additionally, Governor’s chief counsel has also launched a formal investigation into how the glitch occurred and why it was not publicly disclosed sooner.
