New Jersey admits software error added thousands of non-citizens to voter rolls, about 400 voted
A glitch in New Jersey's voter registration system mistakenly listed roughly 6,600 non-citizens, resulting in about 400 votes cast since 2023, a figure officials say is too small to affect election outcomes.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that a software malfunction caused the state to incorrectly register about 6,600 non-citizens to vote, with roughly 400 of those individuals casting ballots since 2023. The error was discovered and corrected in 2024, but the governor said it had not been disclosed publicly by the previous administration.
The governor described the oversight as a "reckless failure" of the former administration, though the former governor's office did not comment. State officials said the affected voters were registered across party lines and were spread throughout the state.
While the incident is larger than similar cases reported in Ohio, Kansas and Iowa, the number of votes involved represents less than 0.02% of the more than 2.2 million votes cast in New Jersey's 2024 presidential election. Analysts note that even if all 400 votes had been cast in a single race, they would not have altered the result in most contests.
Republican leaders have cited the New Jersey case as evidence of a broader problem of non-citizen voting and have called for federal legislation that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration. Critics argue that the New Jersey incident resulted from a technical error rather than intentional fraud, and that a proof-of-citizenship requirement would not have prevented the registrations because the individuals did not actively seek to register.
The episode underscores that non-citizen registration errors can occur, but officials say the scale is limited and appears to be accidental rather than part of a coordinated effort to influence elections.