BS BRIEF
- Gov. Mikie Sherrill has formally refused the Trump Justice Department’s request for information on roughly 6,600 noncitizens who New Jersey says were mistakenly registered to vote, including nearly 400 who cast ballots.
- The dispute has intensified after software vendor IDEMIA publicly disputed New Jersey’s explanation, saying applicants correctly identified themselves as noncitizens and that state officials ultimately approved the registrations.
- The fight has become a national flashpoint in the broader debate over election integrity, voter roll maintenance, state privacy laws, and federal authority to investigate election irregularities.
SHERRILL REJECTS DOJ DEMAND AS NEW JERSEY VOTER REGISTRATION FIGHT ESCALATES
New Jersey’s voter registration controversy took another dramatic turn Tuesday as Gov. Mikie Sherrill formally rejected a Justice Department demand for records related to approximately 6,600 noncitizens who were mistakenly registered to vote through the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission system.
The Trump administration had requested names, addresses, nationalities, voter registration records and information concerning nearly 400 individuals whom the state says went on to cast ballots after being improperly registered. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the information was needed as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into possible violations of federal election law.
Instead, Sherrill doubled down.
“As I have said, I am not in the habit of turning over private, identifying information of the citizens of New Jersey,” the governor said when asked whether she would comply with the federal request. She added that her administration is focused on protecting residents’ private information and maintaining election integrity.
That remark immediately drew attention because the controversy centers on people the state itself has acknowledged were not U.S. citizens when they were registered to vote.
The registration problem first came to light last week when Sherrill disclosed that approximately 6,600 people who answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens while applying for driver’s licenses or state identification cards were nevertheless added to New Jersey’s voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024.
According to the governor, fewer than 400 of those individuals later voted before the error was discovered. She has repeatedly said there is currently no evidence the ballots changed the outcome of any election.
Sherrill blamed the registrations on what she described as a “serious software error” that occurred under the previous Murphy administration and announced an independent investigation, removal of affected registrations and replacement of the software vendor.
But that explanation quickly ran into resistance.
Election technology company IDEMIA, which supplied the software, publicly disputed the governor’s account, saying applicants correctly identified themselves as noncitizens and that the system transmitted those responses accurately. According to the company, county election officials—not the vendor—ultimately approved the registrations under procedures established by the state.
That disagreement has become a central issue in the controversy, with each side pointing to the other over where responsibility ultimately lies.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department argues the registrations strengthen its existing effort to obtain New Jersey voter roll information as part of a broader election integrity investigation.
In correspondence sent to the state, DOJ officials requested identifying information on the affected registrants, including voting records for those who cast ballots, saying the information is necessary to determine whether federal law was violated.
Sherrill has rejected that request, arguing there is “no legal basis” for turning over the personal information and citing both federal privacy protections and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
The dispute now appears headed toward an extended legal battle between Trenton and Washington.
MY TAKE:
For me, this story stopped being about a software glitch the moment everyone started arguing over who gets to see the records.
Everyone agrees something went wrong. Everyone agrees thousands of people who identified themselves as noncitizens ended up on the voter rolls. Everyone agrees hundreds of those registrations resulted in ballots being cast. Those aren’t allegations anymore. Those are the facts New Jersey itself disclosed.
Now the debate has shifted from “Did it happen?” to “Who gets to investigate what happened?”
The governor says she’s protecting privacy. The Justice Department says it’s conducting an investigation into potential violations of federal election law. Those are competing legal arguments that courts may ultimately have to sort out.
What Americans are likely to want—regardless of party—is confidence that voter rolls are accurate, mistakes are corrected, and the public understands exactly how an error of this size occurred in the first place.
When the software vendor says the state approved the registrations, while the state says the software caused the problem, somebody’s version of events is incomplete.
Maybe we let the DOJ do its job, here.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- New York Post – Mikie Sherrill refuses to provide DOJ with info about the 6,600 noncitizens erroneously registered to vote in New Jersey
- Reuters – Trump administration seizes on New Jersey voting error to demand noncitizen data
- New York Post – Software vendor says NJ knew 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote and approved them anyway
- News 12 New Jersey – Sherrill says software error led to about 6,600 noncitizens being registered to vote
- New Jersey Globe – Trump Justice Department demands records on 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote in N.J.
- Wall Street Journal – Tensions grow between Justice Department and New Jersey over voter roll errors
