About 6,600 people who indicated they were noncitizens while obtaining New Jersey driver's licenses and other state IDs were improperly registered to vote in 2023 and 2024, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said on Tuesday.
Sherrill said a preliminary analysis showed fewer than 400 of the people registered that way went on to cast ballots, and that the newly registered voters were listed as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated and were scattered across the state; she said it was unclear which elections they voted in and that there was "no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed."
"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.
Sherrill said she has ordered that the erroneously added voter registrations from that 2023-24 period be removed, has launched an investigation into how the error happened and is replacing the vendor who ran the system, which she identified as Idemia; the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sherrill, who took office in January, said the mistake happened during former Gov. Phil Murphy's tenure and called it "unacceptable that no one in the prior administration brought this to light, demanded accountability or took action when it happened years ago."
She said she found out about the issue on Wednesday, two days before Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin alleged in a letter that there were 35,000 noncitizens registered to vote in her state, and that Mullin's department had given New Jersey two weeks to respond and confirm its "intentions to collaborate with DHS in order to ensure free, fair, and honest elections."
Sherrill said she asked for evidence of Mullin's claim and "heard nothing back," and that she does not intend to turn personally identifying information over to the federal government; Mullin responded on X, saying, "Appreciate you responding back to our letter" and "Looking forward to working with you to secure your elections in the future."
Sherrill said she has concerns the mistakenly registered people's immigration status could be impacted and that it would be "the utmost in hypocrisy for the state to charge them when it's our fault."
The disclosure came as the Trump administration continued to press for new photo ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements in Congress, and Sherrill said in a statement that "Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity" and that "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."