New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill admitted Tuesday that roughly 6,600 noncitizens were wrongly registered to vote before the 2024 election, with fewer than 400 of them casting ballots.
The admission is a political nightmare for Democrats who have spent years mocking election-integrity concerns as conspiracy theories.
Sherrill blamed the scandal on a software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission system, saying noncitizens were automatically added to the voter rolls even after they said they were not U.S. citizens.
The registrations happened between June 2023 and June 2024, before Sherrill took office and while Democrat Phil Murphy was governor.
“Last week I learned that a serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, almost three years prior to my taking office. These individuals answered ‘no’ when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen when applying for drivers’ licenses and identification cards, but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway.
“This happened under the previous administration and, upon learning this information, I immediately ordered my chief counsel to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of what occurred. I also ordered the removal of any residents from our voter rolls who were erroneously added between June 2023 and June 2024. The new MVC Administrator that I appointed has begun the process of replacing the vendor responsible for administering the system.
“Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted. They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state.
“I want to underscore how seriously I take this matter. As a military veteran who swore an oath to defend our Constitution, and as a former federal prosecutor, I believe the integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy. I am appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time. This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now. I am taking action to prevent anything like it from occurring in the future and make sure those responsible are held accountable.
“As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections. Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity. For more than ten years, he has worked to undermine Americans’ faith in our elections by spreading lies about legitimate election results, attempting to overturn a free and fair election, encouraging an attack on our Capitol when he couldn’t accept the will of the voters, and defunding election security at the federal level.
“The difference is simple: when we find a problem, we don’t hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we fix it, and we tell the public. That’s what accountability and good governance look like, and that’s exactly what my administration is doing.
🚨 BREAKING: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill admits the state “accidentally” registered over 6,600 FOREIGNERS to vote, and some of them VOTED
All those who voted should be in HANDCUFFS. And there’s NO WAY there aren’t more.
Per Sherrill, the DMV’s automatic voter registration… pic.twitter.com/bggEqFT4Le
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 21, 2026
“New Jerseyans should have confidence that every eligible citizen can vote, every lawful vote will be counted, and every reasonable step will be taken to protect the integrity of our elections. That’s my responsibility, and it’s one I will never stop fighting to uphold.”
Sherrill said the noncitizens were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state.
She also said New Jersey is replacing the vendor behind the failed registration system and looking to hold people accountable.
But the damage is already done.
People who openly said they were not citizens were still placed on the voter rolls in a state Democrats have run for years.
Some of them voted.
That is exactly the kind of failure Republicans have been warning about while Democrats insisted the system was secure.
The admission comes after Trump announced in a primetime address that the Department of Homeland Security had identified at least 278,000 names of noncitizens on voter rolls nationwide and expected the real number to be higher because several blue states had resisted cooperation.
DHS said its review included four states that had not previously cooperated, including New Jersey.
The department alleged that as many as 35,152 possible noncitizens could be registered in New Jersey.
Sherrill’s confirmed number is smaller, but it is still devastating for Democrats.
For years, the left’s answer to voter-roll concerns has been simple: nothing to see here, Trump is lying, voter fraud is rare.
Now a Democratic governor is admitting that thousands of noncitizens were registered by mistake and hundreds voted.
Sherrill tried to blame Donald Trump for “weaponizing” elections, but her own statement proved the core Republican point.
The problem was real.
The rolls were not clean.
The safeguards failed.
Trump and Republicans are pushing the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections and photo identification to cast a ballot.
Democrats have fought the bill, claiming it would suppress voters.
New Jersey just handed conservatives the perfect response.
If a state system can register thousands of noncitizens even after they check “no” on citizenship, then proof of citizenship is not radical.
It is the bare minimum.
Democrats can keep pretending election integrity is a right-wing obsession.
But New Jersey just proved that the conspiracy theory was sitting inside the voter rolls.
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