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Over 5K removed from NJ voter rolls after noncitizen registration, governor says
By
Mike Hayes
Published Aug 19, 2026
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Office of Governor / Tim Larsen
By
Mike Hayes
Published Aug 19, 2026
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New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration has deleted about 5,100 noncitizens from the voter rolls who were erroneously registered due to a software error with the state’s automatic voter registration at Motor Vehicle Commissions across New Jersey, the governor’s office announced Wednesday.
It also said the Statewide Voter Registration System was briefly taken offline in the last month so the Division of Elections could “copy and preserve the system” then update the status of individuals affected by the error.
Sherrill shocked the Garden State last month when she announced that up to 6,600 noncitizens were wrongly registered between 2023 and 2024, before she took office. At the time, Sherrill said about 400 of those noncitizens who were wrongly registered voted in various elections. Wednesday’s announcement lowered that number slightly to approximately 340 noncitizen voters.
“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 in a statement. “I said we would conduct a thorough, complete, and fair investigation, and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Sherrill said the investigation, which is being conducted by the law firm CSG, is ongoing.
The administration has also changed about 1,450 registered voters affected by the system failure to "rejected," the governor’s office said. Those voters were referred to county election officials for review and will not be allowed to vote in elections until an assessment is completed.
Since the news broke of the noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls, state and national Republicans have seized on the issue. President Donald Trump inflated what occurred with his comments in the days following Sherrill’s revelation, claiming without evidence that “thousands and thousands” of noncitizens voted in New Jersey. The Department of Justice demanded in court that New Jersey turn over its voter rolls to the agency. Sherrill and her administration roundly rejected this request.
On Wednesday, Sherrill said that her administration’s efforts to “confront” what happened in New Jersey “stands in contrast to the Trump administration and Republicans, whose only interest has been in trying to use this issue for political gain.”
New Jersey Republicans have called for significant change to voting systems in the state. Republican Sen. Kristin Corrado, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, told Gothamist this week that she wants to see a temporary moratorium on the automatic voter registration at MVC until the investigation is finished.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco responded to the governor’s update Wednesday with a statement reiterating his desire to establish a bipartisan Select Committee with subpoena power from the Legislature to continue investigating “this unbelievable situation.”
“New Jerseyans deserve to know exactly what happened, how it happened, and whether there are other problems we have yet to uncover," said Bucco, a North Jersey Republican. "Restoring confidence in our elections will require complete transparency from the state, cooperation from all necessary parties, and a commitment to leaving no stone unturned."
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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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