Murphy hid proof of illegal voter registration in New Jersey, Sherrill says

⚠️ Gov. Mikie Sherrill said a software error wrongly registered 6,600 noncitizens to vote.

➡️ The governor said fewer than 400 of those registrants cast ballots before the issue was discovered.

🔴 State officials will remove ineligible voters, replace the software vendor and investigate why the problem was not disclosed sooner.

TRENTON — Gov. Mikie Sherrill has admitted thousands of people are illegally registered to vote in New Jersey.

In an animated Tuesday news conference, Sherrill said that a "serious software error" allowed 6,600 noncitizens to register to vote in just one year. She learned about the issue last Wednesday. The Democrat said the issue affected New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System between June 2023 and June 2024, years before she was governor.

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Noncitizens, including people who could be in the country illegally, are allowed to apply for and obtain drivers' licenses and ID cards in New Jersey. Sherrill said that during the application process, each of these 6,600 noncitizens truthfully answered "no" on a keypad when asked whether they were a U.S. citizen. Nevertheless, the system registered them to vote.

A preliminary analysis found hundreds of them voted in New Jersey elections. Sherrill said fewer than 400 voted, and they were registered as Democrats, Republicans, or unaffiliated. The governor said the state will remove all ineligible voters from the rolls and replace the vendor responsible for the software error.

Why this matters now

The admission comes as election integrity has once again become a flashpoint nationally. President Donald Trump has renewed his push for stricter voting laws ahead of the midterm elections, arguing that states need stronger safeguards against noncitizen voting and other vulnerabilities.

While election officials and repeated reviews have found no evidence of the widespread voter fraud Trump has alleged in the 2020 election, the discovery that thousands of noncitizens were mistakenly registered to vote in New Jersey is likely to fuel the already heated debate over how states verify voter eligibility and protect public confidence in elections.

Aware of this political backdrop, Sherrill still hit at Trump's election integrity claims while revealing the failure by the state government to prevent noncitizens from voting.

New Jersey knew about noncitizens on voter rolls and did nothing

Some unidentified state officials knew about the issue years ago, according to Sherrill, who said it was caught in 2024 but not disclosed to the public.

Without naming former Gov. Phil Murphy, Sherrill said it was unacceptable that the "previous administration" didn't bring the system error to light and demand accountability.

(Governor's Office)

Republicans say review of voter rolls pointed to similar concerns

The announcement on Tuesday is consistent with the state Republican Party's review of the voter rolls. In June, the GOP Election Integrity Task Force said that, after only a few weeks of investigation, it found "significant breaches" that allowed hundreds of unauthorized immigrants to register to vote.

Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, who also serves as the chairwoman of the Republican State Committee, said it was important to find out how the noncitizens had managed to register to vote. Hanlon and other New Jersey Republicans said that the state's opt-out system to register to vote may have played a role, a suspicion that has now been confirmed by Sherrill.

In May, Burlington County Democratic Committee chair Matt Riggins said the task force was, itself, rigging New Jersey elections through election interference. Riggins called it an attempt at undermining the right to vote.

New Jersey doubles down on opt-out voter registration

Tuesday's announcement also comes only months after New Jersey removed a step in the Motor Vehicle Commission's voter registration process. In January, Democratic lawmakers passed a law to remove the option to register to vote; every eligible citizen is now automatically registered to vote when applying for a driver's license or ID.

At the time, Republicans raised concerns that the system lacks accountability if a noncitizen makes it onto the voter rolls, a concern that was dismissed.

Anna Moneymaker, Getty Images

Governor rejects Trump's voter fraud claims

Sherrill said the issue of noncitizens on New Jersey's voter rolls was completely unrelated to President Donald Trump's claims of mass voter fraud.

"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," Sherrill said.

On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that the department identified 250,000 noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada.

He said that as many as 35,152 noncitizens were registered to vote in New Jersey and called on the state to cooperate with the Trump administration's efforts to tighten election security. On Tuesday, Sherrill said that New Jersey had no intention of cooperating with the president.

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