New Jersey officials are continuing to investigate how roughly 6,600 non-citizens were mistakenly added to the state’s voter rolls after what Gov. Mikie Sherrill has described as a software error in the Motor Vehicle Commission’s voter registration system. State officials said the registrations occurred between June 2023 and June 2024 and that fewer than 400 of those individuals ultimately cast ballots before the problem was discovered.
The governor has ordered an independent investigation, directed election officials to remove the affected registrations, and said there is no evidence that the mistaken registrations changed the outcome of any election.
The software vendor, IDEMIA, has disputed suggestions that its system was responsible for registering ineligible voters. In a public statement, the company said its system accurately captured applicants’ responses and transmitted the information according to New Jersey’s specifications.
IDEMIA said all 6,600 applicants indicated they were not U.S. citizens while also requesting voter registration, and maintained that “at no point was a noncitizen ever marked as a citizen in the database.”
The company also emphasized that verifying voter eligibility is the responsibility of New Jersey election officials, not its software. IDEMIA stated that voter registration data “is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote,” adding that the information it provides “must still be validated and adjudicated” before a registration is finalized.
State officials have pushed back on IDEMIA’s account, insisting records identifying applicants as non-citizens should never have been forwarded to election authorities.
The dispute has drawn federal attention, with the U.S. Department of Justice seeking additional information as part of a broader review of voter registration practices.
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