New Jersey governor refuses DOJ demand for names of 6,600 noncitizens mistakenly on voter rolls

The registration error

New Jersey officials disclosed this week that a software glitch at the state's Motor Vehicle Commission caused roughly 6,600 noncitizens to be automatically added to voter rolls in 2023 and 2024. The state has had automatic voter registration since 2018, meaning anyone interacting with a motor vehicle office is registered unless they opt out. The affected individuals had indicated they were not citizens, yet the system still enrolled them. Governor Mikie Sherrill said about 400 of those people later cast ballots. The total number of registered voters in New Jersey exceeds 6.6 million, making the erroneous registrations a tiny fraction of the electorate. Sherrill said she was not made aware of the error until last week.

Federal ultimatum and threat of prosecution

On July 21, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, sent a letter to Sherrill demanding that the state provide the names, addresses, and nationalities of the noncitizens within five business days. Dhillon later said on Fox News that the investigation was just beginning. "We are going to get to the bottom of what happened here," she said. The Justice Department also signaled that those who voted could face criminal charges and deportation.

They are subject to both prosecution as well as removal from the United States.

A DOJ spokeswoman, Kiersten Pels, added that "it is illegal for any noncitizen to vote in a federal election, and every unlawful vote dilutes the voice of American citizens."

Sherrill's refusal

At a news conference on Thursday, Sherrill pushed back, saying the state would not hand over personally identifiable data. She argued that the federal government could misuse the information.

We are not in the practice of turning this kind of personally identifiable data over to the federal government because we have seen them weaponize it.

Sherrill stressed that the noncitizens were registered "through no fault of their own" and would be removed from the rolls. She also said the software vendor responsible, Idemia, was being phased out. Idemia has countered that it was the state Division of Elections' responsibility to verify voter eligibility.

Political escalation

President Donald Trump quickly seized on the announcement, posting on Truth Social that "35,152 is the new number just released by Homeland Security of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey." That figure far exceeds the state's own count. A Guardian review of the DHS letters showed the agency expressed less certainty about the number and offered no explanation of its methodology. Sherrill noted that both Democrats and Republicans were among those erroneously registered, with the majority unaffiliated. The incident has become fodder for Trump's broader narrative of election fraud, though experts say it does not support claims of widespread illegal voting.

35,152 is the new number just released by Homeland Security of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey. These are just the ones that got caught. The real numbers will prove to be many times this amount. They are all Dumocrats!

Expert context

Stephen Richer, a Republican who oversaw elections in Maricopa County, Arizona, said the error was not an example of intentional fraud. "These people were trying to do the right thing and acknowledge that they're not citizens," he said. The deadline for New Jersey to respond to the DOJ demand is July 28.