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NJ Republicans say noncitizen voter problem is larger than governor disclosed
By
Mike Hayes
Published Jul 23, 2026
Modified Jul 23, 2026
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Office of Governor / Tim Larsen
By
Mike Hayes
Published Jul 23, 2026
Modified Jul 23, 2026
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New Jersey Republicans on Thursday unveiled what they said was additional evidence showing that noncitizens were registered to vote and cast ballots beyond what Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed just two days earlier.
On Tuesday, Sherrill revealed that nearly 400 noncitizens voted in New Jersey elections after a software glitch caused more than 6,000 noncitizens to be registered in the state between June 2023 and June 2024.
Christine Giordano Hanlon, chair of the New Jersey Republican State Committee, said a “ sampling” of documents obtained through Open Public Records Act requests by the New Jersey GOP Election Integrity Task Force showed that the one-year window that Sherrill outlined was not the only time period noncitizens were on New Jersey's voter rolls.
Hanlon provided the initials, but not names, of eight individuals the task force said were noncitizens, the date they registered to vote, and the date they voted — if they did so. According to Hanlon, this voting activity happened prior to the June 2023 to June 2024 time period. Two of these individuals voted in elections, she said.
Hanlon, who also serves as the Monmouth County Clerk, said the task force’s OPRA requests returned “hundreds” of documents from about half the state's 21 counties. She said the examples were of “individuals who were noncitizens who self-reported and made requests to come off the voter rolls.”
She did not specify how many of the records returned from the OPRA requests fell outside the time period the governor disclosed records for.
In an interview, Republican Sen. Declan O’Scanlon told Gothamist that the task force’s findings “should rattle the whole system.”
“It's a real problem and it's a serious problem. And the Sherrill administration, it's going to fall to them to fix it, and they need to,” he said.
In response to the allegations, Steve Sigmund, a spokesperson for the governor's office, said the software error is still under investigation and that action was taken to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.
“Let’s be clear, nothing that MAGA Republicans are arguing has anything to do with making elections more secure, and everything to do with voter suppression."
State Republicans say they are working on legislation to address fraudulent voting in the state. Sen. Kristin Corrado, a Republican from Passaic, told Gothamist she plans to introduce a bill that would outlaw automatic voter registration through the Motor Vehicle Commission. The bill would also call for voter identification requirements in all future elections and call for regular independent audits to clean up voter rolls.
Sherrill said the error arose from a system that automatically registers New Jersey residents to vote when they apply for a driver’s license or a state ID. Thousands of people who indicated “no” on keypads at the Motor Vehicle Commission when asked if they were American citizens were still registered to vote, Sherrill said.
O’Scanlon called for an immediate moratorium on automatic voter registration.
“ First off, within the bounds of federal law, we should try to figure out a way to pause registrations that are ongoing today on these same systems, where we still believe there are problems,” he said.
Sherrill said the software glitch was fixed in June 2024, but she didn’t learn of the situation until last week. She criticized the previous administration under Gov. Phil Murphy for not taking action “years ago” when the problem occurred.
Sherrill said the state has hired law firm CSG Law to conduct the independent investigation. After Sherrill’s victory in the 2025 governor’s race, three attorneys from the firm served on her transition committee.
Scanlon said that so far Sherrill’s administration has not been forthcoming with lawmakers about whether the illegal activity affected the whole state or specific portions of New Jersey.
“ We don't know that. That was another thing that the Sherrill administration has been coy about,” he said.
Sherrill said Thursday she believes the investigation will move “very quickly.”
“The people of New Jersey obviously deserve accountability and transparency,” she said.
State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, a Republican from Morristown, said his staff was in the process of preparing a series of open records requests for the Department of Motor Vehicles that would seek to know more about how many non-citizens have received licenses in New Jersey.
“Whatever they answer, whatever they don't answer will be just as telling,” he said.
Pennachio is also calling on the U.S. attorney general’s office to conduct an independent investigation into the matter.
This story has been updated with comment from Gov. Sherrill.
Tagged
Politics
election
new jersey
Mike Hayes
Mike Hayes covers equity and access to opportunity in New Jersey. He joined WNYC and Gothamist in 2023. Before that, he worked as a freelance journalist writing about policing and criminal justice. He has written for ProPublica, CNN, HuffPost, BuzzFeed News and The Appeal. He is also the author of the book, “The Secret Files: Bill De Blasio, The NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.” In 2019, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
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