Vice President JD Vance said New Jersey’s disclosure that a software failure registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens — with fewer than 400 subsequently voting — demonstrates the need for federal proof-of-citizenship safeguards.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Vice President JD Vance called on New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim to support the SAVE America Act after Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that a state motor vehicle software error placed approximately 6,600 self-identified noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls.
Sherrill said Tuesday that the affected residents had accurately answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens while applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards. Despite those responses, the state’s system processed them for voter registration between June 2023 and June 2024, during former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
“These individuals answered ‘no’ when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen when applying for drivers’ licenses and identification cards, but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway,” Sherrill said.
A preliminary review conducted by her administration found that “fewer than 400 individuals” among those erroneously registered later cast ballots.
The governor said she immediately ordered an investigation and directed state officials to remove from the voter rolls anyone improperly added during the affected period.
Sherrill also said New Jersey had begun replacing the vendor responsible for operating the voter registration system. She did not identify the vendor in the information provided or explain precisely how the software converted correct noncitizen responses into records indicating voter eligibility.
Vance responded by arguing that the incident strengthened the case for legislation requiring states to verify citizenship before allowing people to participate in federal elections.
“If only there was a way to stop this type of ‘software error’ that allowed non citizens to vote in our elections,” Vance wrote on X.
“I hope Senators @CoryBooker and @SenatorAndyKim will join us in voting to pass the SAVE America Act to ensure that only eligible American voters can participate in New Jersey elections, and all elections across the United States.”
Neither Booker nor Kim had publicly responded to Vance’s appeal.
The New Jersey disclosure came five days after President Donald Trump delivered a national address on election integrity and released information concerning alleged voter-registration problems across several states.
The Department of Homeland Security separately warned state election officials that its preliminary analysis identified as many as 35,152 possible noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls.
That federal estimate is substantially larger than the approximately 6,600 registrations Sherrill attributed to the motor vehicle system error. The information provided did not establish whether the two figures involve overlapping records, separate time periods or different investigative standards.
DHS also estimated that voter rolls could include as many as 190,832 noncitizens in California, 15,903 in Nevada and 14,576 in Pennsylvania.
Those numbers were described as preliminary and do not by themselves establish that every identified person is ineligible, knowingly registered unlawfully or cast a ballot.
New Jersey’s confirmed software problem, however, established that thousands of applicants who affirmatively disclosed their noncitizen status were nevertheless entered into the registration system. Sherrill also acknowledged that some of those people voted.
The governor combined that disclosure with a sharply critical statement about Trump’s election policies and public claims.
“As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections,” Sherrill said. “Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity. For more than ten years, he has worked to undermine Americans’ faith in our elections by spreading lies about legitimate election results, attempting to overturn a free and fair election, encouraging an attack on our Capitol when he couldn’t accept the will of the voters, and defunding election security at the federal level.”
The White House answered Sherrill through a statement from spokeswoman Abigail Jackson that was provided to the New Jersey Globe.
“This latest incident underscores the absolute necessity of the SAVE America Act,” Jackson said. “American voters deserve to have confidence that our elections are safe and secure — President Trump will never stop fighting to make that happen and all patriotic Americans should join in his effort.”
“Democrats and their media allies have repeatedly said it is impossible for noncitizens to register to vote, let alone cast a ballot,” she continued. “Time and again, they have been proven wrong. As President Trump has said, there is nothing more important than the integrity of our elections.”
The administration is seeking passage of the SAVE America Act as a federal response to concerns about noncitizen registration and voting.
Vance framed the legislation as a mechanism for preventing the type of failure acknowledged in New Jersey by strengthening citizenship verification before a person is added to a voter list.
The submitted information did not provide the full legislative text or a detailed explanation of every requirement in the bill. The central purpose cited by the vice president and White House is to ensure that only eligible U.S. citizens vote in federal elections.
The state’s software failure also adds context to an ongoing dispute between New Jersey and the Justice Department over access to voter-registration records.
Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, a Democrat who also serves as secretary of state, declined an administration request earlier this year for New Jersey’s complete, unredacted voter file.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Caldwell in February. That case remains pending.
Federal officials have argued that access to full state voter files is necessary to compare records with federal citizenship and immigration databases.
New Jersey officials have not accepted the administration’s demand, creating a separate legal dispute over privacy, state authority and federal election oversight.
The newly disclosed motor vehicle error may increase pressure on the state to explain how its systems screen applicants, transfer data and correct eligibility mistakes.
Because the affected residents reportedly disclosed their status truthfully, the registrations were not caused by applicants falsely claiming to be citizens. The failure occurred after the information was entered, according to Sherrill’s description.
That raises several unresolved questions, including whether the system failed consistently during the entire 13-month period, whether officials received warnings that citizenship data had been changed and whether ballots cast by erroneously registered residents can be individually identified.
Sherrill said fewer than 400 affected people voted, but she did not specify the exact number, the elections in which the ballots were cast or whether any races were decided by margins smaller than the number of improper votes.
The information provided also did not indicate whether those voters knew they had been registered, received notices from the state or believed they were legally entitled to participate.
State officials will now need to determine whether the mistaken registrations resulted solely from vendor software, administrative oversight or failures in the process used to compare motor vehicle applications with election records.
Replacing the vendor may prevent the same coding error from recurring, but it does not resolve questions about how the registrations remained on the rolls or why the problem was not discovered earlier.
The episode has become a national political issue because it provides a documented case in which noncitizens entered a state voter-registration system despite answering the citizenship question correctly.
Vance and the White House say that outcome supports federal verification requirements.
Sherrill maintains that her administration is correcting the problem while accusing Trump of using election concerns for political purposes.
Booker and Kim have not said whether the New Jersey findings will affect their positions on the SAVE America Act.
Their response, or continued silence, is likely to remain a central part of the administration’s effort to use the state’s admission to build congressional support for the legislation.
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