About 6,600 non-citizens were inadvertently registered to vote in New Jersey between 2023 and 2024, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday.
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About 400 of them cast their vote incorrectly, she said.
“They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and independent voters and were scattered throughout the state,” said Sherrill, a Democrat. She added that it was unclear which elections they voted in and that there was “no evidence at this point that the elections were influenced by this.”
Sherrill said the names were being removed from voter rolls and that the non-citizens were registered through no fault of their own due to “a serious software flaw in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system” from June 2023 to June 2024.
“These individuals answered “no” when asked on a keyboard whether they were U.S. citizens when they applied for driver’s licenses and identification cards, but the system registered them anyway through no fault of their own,” Sherrill said.
While the number of non-citizens who voted in New Jersey represents only a tiny percentage of the state’s total electorate, the finding could add to President Donald Trump’s claim that they vote in large numbers in U.S. elections. Last week, he used a prime-time speech at the White House to urge Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would impose new photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements to vote.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement that the incident in New Jersey “underscores the absolute necessity of the SAVE America Act.”
“Democrats and their media allies have repeatedly stated that it is impossible for non-citizens to register to vote, let alone cast a ballot. Time and again they have been proven wrong,” Jackson said.
Sherrill said in a statement that “Donald Trump has no credibility whatsoever on the issue of election integrity.” While his government is “trying to exploit elections for political purposes,” she said, “I’m making sure we protect our elections.”
Later on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in a letter to X that the Justice Department was investigating the incident. It asks for the full names, dates of birth, nationalities, addresses and registration information of all 6,600 non-citizens as well as the 400 people who Sherrill says voted in past elections, including when and where they voted.
“It is of the utmost importance to ensure that the votes of U.S. citizens are not illegally diluted by the votes of non-citizens,” Dhillon wrote in her letter to Sherrill.
Experts say this type of error is rare and affects thousands in a country with nearly 300 million registrants. Still, the scope of New Jersey’s failure goes beyond recent examples in other states.
In 2024, Oregon officials announced that they had uncovered an administrative error that had resulted in more than 1,200 non-citizens being added to the state’s voter rolls. And in 2018, California officials said they may have accidentally registered 1,500 non-citizens.
The number of ballots registered in error is typically quite small: In Oregon, officials said, nine people who registered in error appeared to have cast a ballot.
Sherrill, who took office in January, said the mistake in New Jersey happened during the administration of former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. She said it was “unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability or took action when it happened years ago.”
Murphy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sherrill said she learned of the problem on Wednesday – two days before Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed in a letter that 35,000 non-citizens were registered to vote in the state.
The Department of Homeland Security gave the state two weeks to respond and confirm its “intents to cooperate with DHS to ensure a free, fair and honest election.”
Sherrill said the state requested evidence of Mullins’ claim and “received no response.” She added that she does not intend to share personally identifying information with the federal government because the Trump administration “continues to use it as a weapon against people.”
Mullin responded to a social media post in which Sherrill revealed the error, saying, “I appreciate you responding to our letter.”
“I look forward to working with you to secure your elections in the future,” he said on X.
Sherrill indicated in her statement that her office would look into the matter itself. “When we find a problem, we don’t hide it, we don’t deny it, we don’t invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we solve it and we tell the public. That’s what accountability and good governance looks like, and that’s exactly what my administration is doing,” she said.
She said her office has launched its own investigation and “will hold people accountable.”
It does not include people who were registered incorrectly. Sherrill said she was concerned that her immigration status could be affected by the error and that it would be “highest hypocrisy for the state to burden her when it is our fault.”
She also said officials would replace the vendor responsible for the error, Idemia, “to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/6600-noncitizens-registered-vote-nj-software-error-governor-says-rcna588524
