Election integrity experts told a House Judiciary subcommittee this week that the roughly 6,600 noncitizens discovered on New Jersey’s voter rolls are almost certainly just the beginning of a far broader national problem. The hearing came as Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration faces mounting criticism over its handling of the disclosure and its refusal to release key records.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., who chairs the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, convened the hearing titled “Restoring Election Integrity: Oversight of Voter Fraud in New Jersey.” He opened by noting how much remains unexplained. “There’s still a lot we don’t know about, why this happened and why it took so long for the public to know about it,” Van Drew said.
The Problem Built Into New Jersey’s Process
Sherrill acknowledged in late July that approximately 6,600 noncitizens were added to New Jersey voter rolls in 2023 and 2024, with around 340 going on to cast ballots. She has blamed a software issue with the Motor Vehicle Commission’s license printing vendor, IDEMIA. The company disputes that account, with a spokeswoman stating “there was no glitch or software error” on the vendor’s end.
Josh Findlay, senior fellow for secure elections policy at the America First Policy Institute, told the subcommittee the issue may run deeper than any single vendor error. In New Jersey, the problem is built into the process,” Findlay said, pointing to the state’s 2021 decision to extend standard driver’s licenses to noncitizens and its automatic voter registration system, which links directly to the Motor Vehicle Commission.
Jason Sena, a New Jersey election law attorney, testified that public records show noncitizens registered to vote in Hudson and Bergen counties both before and after the June 2023 to June 2024 window Sherrill cited. “Records show noncitizens were permitted to register to vote outside that timeframe and through other non-MVC methods, which confirms as a matter of fact that New Jersey noncitizen voter registration is bigger than the state has admitted,” Sena told the subcommittee.
Other States Facing the Same Overlap
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 19 states and the District of Columbia allow noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses, while 24 states and D.C. operate automatic voter registration systems. Experts say the combination has proved problematic beyond New Jersey. Oregon’s Motor Vehicle division discovered in 2024 that staff had misidentified nearly 2,000 registrants as U.S. citizens. In Minnesota, election officials were unable to clearly explain at a state House committee hearing how the system prevents ineligible voters from casting ballots using state-issued driver’s licenses.
Justin Riemer, president of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, told the subcommittee that New Jersey’s system never actually verified citizenship. Applicants were registered to vote even after indicating on Motor Vehicle Commission forms that they were not citizens. “New Jersey may be just the tip of the iceberg on this issue,” Findlay said.
Records Withheld and Legislation Stalled
Van Drew said Sherrill’s administration has declined to cooperate with the subcommittee’s investigation, while IDEMIA has been responsive. The Republican National Committee sent legal notices to New Jersey’s secretary of state and election officials in six counties after they failed to release records on noncitizen registrants. A federal judge, appointed by President Biden, subsequently ruled New Jersey does not have to release its unredacted voter rolls, citing privacy concerns.
Van Drew was blunt about what that refusal signals. “Ladies and gentlemen, in political terms, that’s called a coverup. It means you don’t want people to know what’s really going on,” he said.
Riemer urged Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship before a state could complete a voter registration. “The SAVE America Act would bar a state from registering those who do not provide documentary proof of citizenship. And because the New Jersey applicants presented none it would have kept them off the rolls,” he said. The bill has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. New Jersey state Sen. Michael Testa has also called for the legislature to reconvene and pass a voter ID bill, and Sherrill has signaled she would sign such a measure if it reached her desk.
