New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill held a press conference today in which she announced that the state had just discovered that in 2023 and 2024 the state’s motor voter compliance system had automatically registered to vote 6,600 non-citizens who had said on the form that they were not citizens. (In other words, these people affirmatively said they were not citizens and were automatically enrolled as voters anyway.) She went to say that “fewer than 400” of them had gone on to vote.
Sherrill criticized the previous administration, canceled the contract of the software vendor and started a broader investigation into how this happened. This isn’t the first time this has happened with the motor voter law since non-citizens get drivers licenses and the enrollment system is tied to the driver’s license system. But that “fewer than 400” number seems very, very high relative to other similar cases. So I’m curious how much Sherrill’s office has actually scrutinized these numbers. Usually, a closer look shows many subsequently became citizens or were actually citizens already. And her office seems to have moved very quickly to get these numbers out. They certainly could be valid. But I’d recommend some caution on this until we hear more. I’ve put in a query to the governor’s office to this effect.
