House committees seek records on how New Jersey found noncitizen voter registrations amid dispute

Two House committees have requested documents and communications from New Jersey’s chief elections official about the “alleged software errors” that permitted 6,600 noncitizens on the voter rolls. 

The House Administration and Judiciary Committees sent the request to New Jersey Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State Dale Caldwell on Monday, according to a letter obtained by Just the News.

The letter was signed by House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Rep. Laurel Lee and Rep. Jeff Van Drew.    

Last month, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that a software glitch resulted in the state’s motor vehicle system accidentally registering 6,600 noncitizens to vote. She acknowledged that as many as 400 of those individuals voted in recent elections. 

However, the software vendor for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, France-based IDEMIA, issued a statement disputing those claims, saying it was the responsibility of the state government to verify eligibility to vote, Just the News first reported last month.  

In fact, according to subsequent reporting, the Motor Vehicle Commission had identified the issue in June 2024 and requested at the time that the software vendor change its settings so that those who said they were noncitizens would not have the option to register to vote.

“If the New Jersey government had access to accurate information about the citizenship status of the noncitizens who were registered to vote and were aware of the situation in June 2024, this raises additional questions about Governor Sherrill’s decision to blame IDEMIA, to not remove the noncitizens from the voter rolls, and to not disclose the issue to the public,” the members of Congress wrote. 

You can read the letter below: 

The committees are asking Caldwell’s office to turn over all documents “referring or relating to any alleged software errors that resulted in noncitizens registering to vote or the purposeful registration of noncitizens,” including how the glitch was discovered and about the subsequent investigation. 

“New Jersey officials have spent years dismissing concerns about noncitizens on the voter rolls and telling the public that the safeguards work. Now that those assurances have proven false, we are not going to accept more excuses or allow them to avoid answering for what happened,” Rep. Van Drew said in a statement. Van Drew represents New Jersey’s Second Congressional District. 

“This issue is not going away. At some point, state officials will have to turn over the records, explain what they knew and when they knew it, and show whether federal election laws were followed. This is exactly what congressional oversight is for,” he said.  

“Every American citizen deserves confidence that their lawful vote is protected and never diluted by an ineligible ballot,” Van Drew added.