Overview
- Governor Mikie Sherrill disclosed on July 21 that roughly 6,600 people who identified as noncitizens were added to New Jersey’s voter rolls after records were sent from the Motor Vehicle Commission to the Division of Elections.
- State officials say about 4,500 of those registrations have been removed and roughly 2,100 were referred to county election officials for case‑by‑case review, and they reported that about 400 of the flagged registrants voted in elections since 2023.
- The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an inquiry into the matter and House Republicans led by Jim Jordan and Bryan Steil have formally demanded documents to assess compliance with HAVA, the NVRA, and the Civil Rights Act.
- The Republican National Committee and the New Jersey GOP submitted NVRA records requests to state and county officials on Monday that require production of voter‑list maintenance records within 20 days, with potential legal steps if officials do not comply.
- The software vendor IDEMIA disputes the state’s characterization of a vendor error, the state says the MVC fixed the issue in June 2024, and voting‑rights experts warn that heavy‑handed removals or new proof‑of‑citizenship rules could wrongly disenfranchise eligible voters.