6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote in N.J. because of a ‘software error,’ governor says

Roughly 6,600 noncitizens were unwittingly registered to vote in New Jersey between 2023 and 2024, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday.

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Of that number, roughly 400 improperly cast votes, she said.

“They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state,” said Sherrill, a Democrat. She added that it is unclear at this point which elections they voted in and that there was “no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed” as a result.

Sherill said the names are currently being removed from the voter rolls, and that the noncitizens had been registered through no fault of their own because of “a serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System” between June of 2023 and June of 2024.

“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 said.

While the number of noncitizens who cast ballots in New Jersey represents a tiny percentage of the state’s overall electorate, the finding could add fuel to President Donald Trump’s claims that they are voting in large numbers in U.S. elections. He used a primetime speech from the White House last week to push Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would impose new photo ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements to vote.

“As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections,” Sherrill said. “Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity.”

Experts say this type of error does occur rarely, impacting thousands in a country with nearly 300 million registrants. Still, the scale of the mistake in New Jersey goes beyond recent examples in other states.

In 2024, Oregon officials announced it had uncovered that an administrative error that put more than 1,200 noncitizens on its voter rolls. And in 2018, California officials said that they may have registered 1,500 noncitizens accidentally.

The number of mistaken registrants who cast a ballot is typically quite small: In Oregon, officials said, nine people who had been mistakenly registered appeared to have cast a ballot.

Sherrill, who took office in January, said the mistake in New Jersey happened during former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s tenure. She said that it was “unacceptable that no one in the prior 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 found out about the issue on Wednesday — two days before the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleged in a letter that there were 35,000 noncitizens registered to vote in her state.

Mullin’s department given the state two weeks to respond and confirm its “intentions to collaborate with DHS in order to ensure free, fair, and honest elections.”

Sherrill said the state has asked for evidence of Mullin’s claim and “heard nothing back.” She added she does not intend to turn personally identifying information over to the federal government because the Trump administration “continues to weaponize it against people.”

Mullin responded to a social media post where Sherrill divulged the error, saying, “Appreciate you responding back to our letter.”

“Looking forward to working with you to secure your elections in the future,” his post on X said.

Sherrill indicated in a statement her office would deal with the issue itself. “When we find a problem, we don’t hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we fix it, and we tell the public. That’s what accountability and good governance look like, and that’s exactly what my administration is doing,” she said.

She said her office has launched its own investigation into what happened and “will be holding people accountable.”

That does not include those who were mistakenly registered. Sherrill said she has concerns their immigration status could be impacted as a result of the mistake, and it would be “the utmost in hypocrisy for the state to charge them when it’s our fault.”

She also said officials are replacing the vendor responsible for the error, Idemia, “to make sure nothing like this happens again.”

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.