House Republicans are investigating New Jersey's election administration after Gov. Mikie Sherrill acknowledged that roughly 6,600 noncitizens were added to the state's voter rolls in 2023 and 2024, with about 400 of them casting ballots. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil sent a letter Monday to Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell requesting documents and answers about the state's compliance with federal election laws.
The letter focuses on the period between June 2023 and June 2024, when, according to Sherrill, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission sent the information of noncitizens who accurately marked that they were not citizens to the Department of State's Division of Elections, where they were then registered to vote. Sherrill attributed the problem to what she called a «serious software error» in the state's Motor Vehicle system. The registrations occurred before her tenure as governor began, she said, but the announcement has intensified Republican criticism of New Jersey Democrats and elevated election integrity as a major issue ahead of the November midterms.
The software vendor IDEMIA, however, has disputed Sherrill's account. In the committee letter, Jordan and Steil wrote that IDEMIA refuted the governor's claims and said New Jersey agencies were to blame for the registrations. According to the letter, the registration of noncitizens appears to have stopped only when the Motor Vehicle Commission asked IDEMIA to change certain settings in June 2024, but the noncitizens were not removed from the voter rolls and the issue was not publicly disclosed until now.
«If the New Jersey government had access to accurate information about the citizenship status of the noncitizens who were registered to vote and were aware of the situation in June 2024, this raises additional questions about Governor Sherrill's decision to blame IDEMIA, to not remove the noncitizens from the voter rolls, and to not disclose the issue to the public,» the chairmen wrote. The letter says Caldwell, as the state's top elections official, is «uniquely positioned» to help the investigation.
The committees are seeking information related to New Jersey's compliance with the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, and the Civil Rights Act of 1960. According to the letter, the Help America Vote Act governs the rules, maintenance, and technical coordination required for statewide voter registration databases, while the National Voter Registration Act mandates that state motor agencies serve as voter registration portals with compliance protocols to keep voter rolls accurate. The Civil Rights Act, the chairmen noted, requires states to maintain voter records and empowers the Justice Department to cross-reference lists and identify improper registrations. The committees are also asking for documents concerning how the state vets its voter rolls for eligibility and whether New Jersey has cooperated with the Department of Homeland Security in verifying the citizenship status of voters. The letter was also signed by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., and Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., who chair relevant subcommittees. New Jersey's government has been asked to provide the documents by August 17.
It remains unclear how many noncitizens may have registered to vote beyond the 2023-2024 period, in part because New Jersey's motor voter laws make it possible for people to register during a visit to a local Department of Motor Vehicles office. The revelations have undercut assurances from Democrats that noncitizens are not voting in U.S. elections and have strengthened Republican calls for stricter federal ballot standards. To date, no evidence has shown that noncitizens have swayed the outcome of any federal election.
The dispute has also reached the courts, with a federal judge blocking the Justice Department from accessing New Jersey voter rolls amid the statewide controversy. The congressional investigation comes as state officials face questions about how state agencies handled voter registration data, maintained the rolls, and disclosed the issue.
