New Jersey Software Error Mistakenly Registered Non-Citizens to Vote

By Staff, Agencies

A software glitch in the US state of New Jersey mistakenly registered thousands of non-citizens to vote, allowing nearly 400 of them to cast ballots, Governor Mikie Sherrill has said.

The disclosure has renewed debate over election integrity in the United States. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the White House said the incident highlighted the need to pass President Donald Trump’s SAVE America Act, which would require states to verify citizenship before registering voters for federal elections.

Democrats and voting rights advocates, however, argued that the case reflected an isolated administrative error rather than evidence of widespread non-citizen voting.

According to Sherrill, the software malfunction affected about 6,600 people who applied for driver’s licenses or identification cards through the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission between mid-2023 and mid-2024. Although the applicants correctly identified themselves as non-US citizens, the glitch automatically added them to the state’s voter registration rolls.

State officials said fewer than 400 of those mistakenly registered ultimately voted. They added that the ballots represented less than 0.01% of the more than four million votes cast in New Jersey during the 2024 election and found no evidence that the error affected the outcome of any race.

Sherrill said the issue was only recently discovered. Her administration has ordered an investigation, instructed election officials to remove all ineligible voter registrations, and announced that the software contractor responsible for the faulty system will be replaced.

The governor also criticized the previous state administration, accusing it of failing to identify and disclose the problem sooner.

Federal officials have urged states to review their voter registration databases, while election authorities in several states have questioned broader claims of widespread non-citizen voting and called on Washington to provide evidence supporting such allegations.