Gov. Mikie Sherrill called it "a serious software error" in New Jersey's motor vehicle licensing system, which led to roughly 6,600 noncitizens being added to the voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024.
The state has launched an investigation.
Officials have begun purging 4,500 of those people from its list of registered voters. Another 2,100 who were flagged will be referred to county election officials to confirm if they are citizens. The governor said fewer than 400 actually cast ballots during that time, a presidential election year.
But an examination of the state's registration data suggests the number of people improperly registered to vote was likely far too small to have had much impact, experts say.
In the 12 months between June 2023 and June of 2024, the data shows total voter registration in New Jersey increased from 6.54 million to 6.56 million. The 6,600 names improperly added to that list represented less than 0.1% — an amount statistically invisible in annual snapshots, said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.
That doesn't mean that the issue isn't serious, say political observers.
Indeed, Republicans in New Jersey have alleged that the numbers were higher than 6,600 reported. Public documents, they said, show additional noncitizens voluntarily notified the state outside of 2023-24 that they were improperly registered to vote. New Jersey GOP Chair Christine Hanlon charged the voter registration problem was "by design, not by glitch."
But others said the numbers should be kept in perspective.
Koning said New Jersey's typical "churn" in cleaning up its voter rolls on a regular basis "completely consumes" an event the size of the mistake within the state Motor Vehicle Commission.
"The state removed almost 100,000 inactive voters in August 2023 and another almost 225,000 in February 2025 as part of its regular two-year list maintenance under federal law," she pointed out. "Once you add back the roughly 100,000 voters removed in the August 2023 maintenance, gross additions that year were about 111,000, consistent with the adjacent non-purge years. Nothing anomalous on either a net or gross basis."
Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University and executive director of the FDU Poll, saw nothing unexpected or suspicious in the county voter registration breakdowns.
"Increases in registered voters were basically proportional to population," he said.
The smallest increases were seen in the most rural counties.
"If someone wanted to, they could correlate that with partisanship," Cassino said, as in smaller proportionate increases in Republican areas. "But fewer people moving to more rural areas is a better explanation."
Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University and a borough council member in Highland Park, said that the data showed counties with the biggest one-year jump were all Democratic (Middlesex, Hudson and Essex). But three Republican counties — Monmouth, Morris and Ocean — were not that far behind.
"I think a big part of that jump is how motivated Democrats are to take back the House," he said. "But I was actually surprised at the jumps in the Republican counties."
Hale said it was possible that getting rid of the so-called "county line," the unique but controversial system in which parties across New Jersey once gave preferential placement on primary election ballots to endorsed candidates, caused huge Democratic fields that could have helped the Democratic counties, "since more candidates running means more candidates trying to register new voters."
At a press conference, the governor blamed the registration of noncitizens on a software glitch when those applying for a driver's license or identification were asked if they wanted to register to vote.
"In the case of this error, some individuals indicated that they weren't citizens and weren't eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway," she said. "The error in the software was corrected a year later, in June of 2024."
IDEMIA, the company responsible for the registration system, has challenged that explanation. It said its only role was to transmit information through the motor vehicle system. Voter registration information was provided to the New Jersey Department of State's Division of Elections, the company said, which was ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote.
"Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections," said the company, which also operates the TSA's PreCheck enrollment services.
Sherrill said there is "no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed" by the votes of those who were ineligible to cast ballots. Questioned on Wednesday on her "Ask Gov. Sherrill" call-in TV show as to why the problems with the corrupted voter registrations were just being publicly revealed now, after originally discovered in 2024, Sherrill said she had no idea.
"Frankly, it's unacceptable," said the Democratic governor, who took office in January. "I can't imagine why we are just finding out about this now, and why nothing was done to remove these voters from the rolls. It's mind-boggling to me."
Even before the registration problems became public, New Jersey had put the contract held by IDEMIA up for competitive re-bid, which was won by Thales, a French technology company.
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"We are working with both our current and new vendor to transition to the new vendor in the near future, said MVC spokesman William Connolly. "At the same time, we continue working closely with our current vendor to ensure uninterrupted service for New Jerseyans. With over 250,000 transactions processed weekly, service continuity remains a top priority for the MVC."
Those identified by the state as being improperly registered have already begun receiving letters by the Motor Vehicle Commission, suggesting they might consider seeking legal advice.
Individuals can still register to vote through the MVC.
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