Gov. Mikie Sherrill has ordered an investigation into what her administration says was a software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission system that mistakenly registered roughly 6,600 people to vote after they indicated they were not U.S. citizens.
According to a statement released by the governor, the error occurred between June 2023 and June 2024 under the previous administration. Individuals applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards answered “no” when asked on an electronic keypad whether they were U.S. citizens, but “through no fault of their own,” were registered to vote because of a software issue.
Sherrill said she learned of the problem last week and immediately directed her chief counsel to launch an investigation into how the error occurred. She also ordered election officials to remove any residents who were mistakenly added to New Jersey’s voter rolls during that period.
The governor said the new MVC administrator has also begun the process of replacing the vendor responsible for administering the registration system.
“Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted,” Sherrill said in the statement. “They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state.”
The administration did not identify the software vendor or specify whether any of the registrations occurred in Mercer County. It also did not indicate whether any election results were affected.
Sherrill called the incident “a serious software error” and said the investigation is intended to determine how it happened and recommend safeguards to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
“I want to underscore how seriously I take this matter,” Sherrill said. “The integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy.”
Political reaction
The disclosure immediately drew responses from both Democratic and Republican leaders.
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said he supports the administration’s decision to hire an independent law firm to investigate the error and said the Legislature would await the findings before considering additional action.
The White House also cited the incident in urging Congress to pass the proposed SAVE America Act, arguing the legislation would strengthen citizenship verification requirements for voter registration in federal elections.
Meanwhile, New Jersey Republican Party Chair Christine Giordano Hanlon said the disclosure validates concerns previously raised by the party’s Election Integrity Task Force. Hanlon called for a bipartisan investigation, questioned whether the problem extends beyond the one-year period identified by the state, and said the public deserves a full accounting of how the error occurred and whether additional safeguards are needed.
According to the governor’s office, the state is working to remove the erroneous voter registrations while the independent investigation proceeds.
The governor’s office has not yet released additional details about how the software malfunction occurred, how many of the affected registrations have already been removed, or whether the error impacted any specific elections. There has also not been any specific information released on if any of the erroneous registrations occurred in Mercer County. MercerMe will continue to investigate this and will update the story as more local information becomes available.
