The U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has launched a formal investigation into New Jersey’s voter rolls after Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, publicly admitted that thousands of non-citizens were improperly registered to vote in the state, with hundreds of them actually casting ballots.
Sherrill confirmed that approximately 6,600 non-citizens were erroneously added to New Jersey’s voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024. The culprit, she said, was a software glitch tied to the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission and vendor IDEMIA, which handles automatic voter registration during motor vehicle transactions.
Here’s the troubling detail: applicants correctly indicated on a keypad prompt that they were not U.S. citizens. The system registered them anyway.
Of those 6,600 improper registrations, a little fewer than 400 non-citizens went on to cast ballots in elections since 2023. Those individuals were registered across party lines, including as Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters, and were spread across different parts of the state.
As originally reported, Sherrill attempted to distance herself from the fallout by pointing to her predecessor, former Governor Phil Murphy. She said the issue was only discovered within the past week and emphasized that it predated her time in office. She also maintained that no elections were decided by the improper votes.
“It’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability, or took action when it happened years ago,” Sherrill said. “This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now.”
The DOJ wasted no time responding. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division, issued a pointed statement shortly after the governor’s announcement.
“Today, NJ Gov. Sherrill stated that 400 non-citizens voted in elections. This is unacceptable and illegal,” Dhillon said. “The Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department is investigating this unlawful dilution of American votes.”
Dhillon’s office has also requested detailed records from the state, including voter rolls and documentation related to all 6,600 improper registrations and the roughly 400 votes cast.
The investigation fits a broader pattern of DOJ enforcement activity under Dhillon. Back in February, the department sued New Jersey and several other states for failing to turn over complete voter registration lists as part of federal oversight of voter eligibility compliance.
Earlier this month, Dhillon sent letters to election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, reminding them of federal requirements to maintain accurate voter rolls. Those letters carried a clear warning: election officers who knowingly keep non-citizens on voter registration lists, or who facilitate non-citizen voting, could face criminal liability under federal law. The letters also offered federal assistance to states working toward compliance.
The New Jersey case now stands as one of the most concrete examples cited by federal authorities in their ongoing push to tighten oversight of voter eligibility nationwide.