Sherrill: NJ removes 5,100 voter registrations tied to MVC debacle, blocks 1,450 pending review

About 340 people newly registered because of the error voted, but 220 affected voters had separate records indicating their registrations may have been valid.

TRENTON — New Jersey has removed about 5,100 people from its voter rolls and blocked another 1,450 from voting pending a review of their eligibility, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Wednesday.

All were among roughly 6,600 people affected by a Motor Vehicle Commission system failure that registered them to vote even though they indicated when they registered for or renewed their driver’s licenses or identification cards that they were not U.S. citizens.

Between June 2023 and June 2024, the MVC system allowed applicants who answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens to continue to the voter-registration question. IDEMIA, the MVC’s longtime technology contractor, said the affected applicants then answered “yes” when asked whether they wanted to register.

In June 2024, the process was corrected, but the registrations were not reviewed or removed at the time. It is still unclear why nothing was done, and who dropped the ball. Sherrill publicly disclosed the problem at a July 21 news conference.

The figures Sherrill released Wednesday are an update of preliminary estimates issued July 28, when the administration said about 4,500 registrations would be removed, and 2,100 cases would be sent to county election officials for further review.

Some registrations deleted, others placed under review

About 5,100 people who were removed from the voter rolls had been registered due to the MVC error and did not have a separate registration or other record attesting to their eligibility, according to Sherrill.

Their registrations were placed in “deleted” status, she said Wednesday.

Another approximately 1,450 people had their registrations changed to “rejected” status, preventing them from voting until county officials resolve their records and verify their eligibility, Sherrill said.

Those people were affected by the MVC failure but had separate voter registrations, attestations, or transactions requiring further examination, she said.

Sherrill also provided a more precise estimate of how many people affected by the error later voted.

Approximately 340 people who were newly registered because of the error voted. About 220 affected people who voted had previous voter registrations or other records indicating that they may have been eligible to register, Sherrill said. Their cases are being referred to county election officials for further review.

County officials have been directed to complete their reviews before voting begins. Any remaining changes or removals will be handled at the county level, Sherrill said.

The Division of Elections briefly took the Statewide Voter Registration System offline to copy and preserve it before changing the affected registration records, she said.

State and contractor disagree over responsibility

Sherrill has blamed IDEMIA for a software error that allowed the registrations to be transmitted. The company has maintained that its system accurately recorded the applicants’ answers and that state election officials were responsible for reviewing and approving voter registrations.

The registrations occurred during former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. Murphy has said he was unaware of the problem.

Sherrill said Wednesday that her administration is working to correct the voter rolls while protecting eligible residents from being disenfranchised.

“My administration has continued to move aggressively to fix the error at the Motor Vehicle Commission under the previous administration, to correct our voter rolls, and to protect the voting rights of eligible New Jerseyans,” Sherrill said. “I said we would conduct a thorough, complete, and fair investigation, and that is exactly what we are doing. Because that is what accountable government looks like. My commitment to the people of New Jersey is to confront this issue with the urgency it deserves, so we have strong and fair elections.”

Sherrill said the efforts stand “in contrast to the Trump administration and Republicans, whose only interest has been in trying to use this issue for political gain.”

“I am grateful to everyone who has been working around the clock on remediation efforts and reviewing our records with a fine-toothed comb to preserve the integrity of our voter rolls and ensure that our elections remain free and fair,” she said.

Federal government continues to pursue records

The Trump administration’s efforts to obtain New Jersey voter records are continuing in federal court.

The U.S. Department of Justice demanded identifying information about the approximately 6,600 people after Sherrill disclosed the MVC failure. The department sought their names, dates of birth, addresses, nationalities, registration dates, and information about when and where affected people voted.

Sherrill refused to provide the personal information, saying the demand had no legal basis and that she would protect residents’ private data.

That request was separate from a Justice Department lawsuit filed in February seeking New Jersey’s entire unredacted statewide voter-registration database, including confidential information such as driver’s license numbers and portions of Social Security numbers.

The department cited the MVC failure as an additional reason the state should be required to turn over the database.

U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi dismissed the lawsuit July 29, ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 did not authorize the Justice Department to compel the state to produce its computerized voter list.

The Justice Department appealed the decision to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 17.

Congressional Republicans have opened a separate inquiry into the MVC failure.

Republican leaders of the House Judiciary and House Administration committees have demanded documents and communications from IDEMIA concerning the system, the discovery of the improper registrations, and the company’s communications with New Jersey officials.

The committees gave IDEMIA until Aug. 25 to produce records dating to Jan. 1, 2023. They also asked Sherrill to answer 12 questions about the failure by Aug. 21.

State investigation underway

Sherrill hired CSG Law to investigate how the registration debacle occurred, who knew about the problem, and why the affected registrations were not reviewed after the process was corrected in 2024. She has promised to make the findings public.

Republican state lawmakers have called for a separate bipartisan legislative investigation, arguing that an inquiry commissioned by the governor is not sufficient.