New Jersey officials say a software error led to thousands of non-citizens being mistakenly added to the state's voter rolls, though the vast majority never cast a ballot. Governor Mikie Sherrill said more than 6,000 people who were not U.S. citizens were erroneously registered to vote as a result of the technical glitch, a disclosure that has drawn attention to how the state manages its rolls.
According to the state, the mistaken registrations occurred over a roughly one-year period, from June 2023 to June 2024. Officials traced the problem to a software error in the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles, the agency whose systems feed into voter registration for many residents when they carry out routine licensing business.
Despite the size of the error, the number of people who actually voted was far smaller. A preliminary analysis by the state found that fewer than 400 of the more than 6,000 individuals in the affected group had cast a ballot, according to officials, which sharply limits the practical impact the mistake had on any results.
Sherrill, who was not governor at the time the registrations occurred, said she moved quickly once the issue came to light. She said she immediately launched an investigation into the matter after being notified of the problem last week, seeking to establish how the error had happened and exactly how many people had been caught up in it.
The governor also said she had directed officials to clean up the rolls. She instructed that any non-citizens who had been added to the voter registration lists be removed, an effort intended to correct the record and ensure that no one ineligible remained registered heading into future elections in the state.
For now, the state's focus is on correcting the voter rolls. With the removal of non-citizens from the lists underway and fewer than 400 of the affected registrations linked to an actual ballot, officials have moved to contain the fallout, even as the investigation into how the software error occurred in the first place continues.