The House Judiciary Committee is seeking documents and communications between IDEMIA and the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission to resolve conflicting accounts from Gov. Mikie Sherrill and the MVC vendor over who was responsible for transmitting information that led to approximately 6,600 noncitizens being improperly added to New Jersey’s voter rolls.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) and two other House Republicans sent the demand on Tuesday to Matt Cole, the CEO of IDEMIA Public Security North America.
Sherrill said last month that a serious software error involving the MVC’s voter registration system caused people who had indicated they were not U.S. citizens to be registered anyway.
But IDEMIA has disputed Sherrill’s characterization of the problem, saying its software correctly recorded that all 6,600 individuals answered “yes” when asked if they wanted to register to vote and “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens.
The company said both responses were recorded correctly and remained available to the MVC through the database the agency used to gather voter information and transmit it to the Division of Elections.
“Governor Sherrill blamed an error with IDEMIA’s software,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, IDEMIA has publicly denied that its software was the cause of the improper voter registration.”
The registrations occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, during the administration of former Gov. Phil Murphy, and began nearly three years before Sherrill took office.
A preliminary state review found that fewer than 400 of the improperly registered noncitizens subsequently cast ballots. Sherrill has said the registrations occurred through no fault of the individuals involved and ordered their removal from the voter rolls.
According to IDEMIA, the improper registrations stopped after the MVC asked the company to change certain settings in June 2024. But the affected registrants were not removed from the voter rolls at the time, and the problem was not publicly disclosed until July 2026.
The letter was also signed by House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisconsin) and House Elections Subcommittee Chair Laurel Lee (R-Florida).
The lawmakers said those circumstances raise questions about what information New Jersey officials had, when they learned of the problem, and why it took two years to remove the registrations and notify the public.
The committees are seeking all documents and communications concerning any alleged software error, the discovery and investigation of the improper registrations, and IDEMIA’s procedures for collecting and transmitting voter information.
They also want IDEMIA’s protocols for complying with federal voting laws and all communications with New Jersey officials about the MVC software, including any warnings issued by the company and discussions about identifying and correcting the problem.
The request covers records dating back to January 1, 2023. IDEMIA was given until 5 p.m. on August 25 to produce the materials.
The IDEMIA demand is the latest step in a widening congressional investigation into the controversy.
In July, Van Drew, the chairman of the panel’s Subcommittee on Oversight, gave Sherrill until August 21 to answer twelve questions on the voter registration controversy
Earlier this month, the same four lawmakers sought records from Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, who also serves as New Jersey’s secretary of state and chief election officer. That request focused on the state’s compliance with federal voting laws, its safeguards against registering noncitizens and its communications with IDEMIA.
Van Drew launched a separate inquiry in July, when he and seventeen other House Republicans sent Sherrill twelve questions about how the registration failure occurred, why it was not detected sooner, which elections were affected, and whether any state officials or contractors would be held responsible.
Van Drew chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight and can convene hearings and pursue documents using the committee’s subpoena power.
The lawmakers said their investigation could inform potential changes to federal election and civil rights laws.
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