Overview
- Governor Mikie Sherrill said last week that a Motor Vehicle Commission software problem led to roughly 6,600 people who identified as noncitizens being added to the voter rolls and that about 400 of them voted in 2023–24.
- New Jersey has started removing more than 4,500 registrations tied to the error and has sent about 2,100 other cases to county election officials for further review to avoid wrongful disenfranchisement.
- The Justice Department has opened a civil‑rights inquiry and demanded records for the affected voters while the state has hired CSG Law for an independent review and is resisting giving unredacted lists to federal officials.
- IDEMIA, the contracted vendor, says it supplied data showing applicants were noncitizens and warned of problems, and it disputes the state's claim that a vendor software glitch caused the wrongful registrations.
- The disclosure has reignited debate over DHS matching methods and the SAVE Act, with experts warning federal matching can produce false positives and senators signaling low odds that broad proof‑of‑citizenship measures will pass before the 2026 midterms.