Education commissioner vouches for September school elections amid voter-roll crisis

Commissioner of Education Lilly Lau trusts the Sherrill administration’s efforts to remove noncitizens from New Jersey’s voter rolls before ballots are cast in the state’s September 15 special school elections.

“Yes, the commissioner has confidence in the integrity of the upcoming school elections,” Laux spokesman Michael Yaple told the New Jersey Globe. “We are confident in the actions the state has taken to address the voter rolls, and believe counties will move swiftly to conduct their review.”

Yaple’s statement of support came after three days of dodging and parsing of words.

Vote-by-mail ballots are expected to go out shortly.

Voters in Cedar Grove, Cinnaminson, Deerfield, Moorestown and Roselle, along with Morristown and Morris Township voters in the Morris School District, will decide proposals totaling more than $385.6 million.

The elections will be the first since Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration disclosed that an alleged software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission caused information belonging to approximately 6,600 noncitizens to be transmitted to county election officials for voter registration between June 2023 and June 2024.

About 340 of those individuals are believed to have voted in at least one election.  State officials have removed roughly 5,100 registrations and placed another 1,450 in rejected status pending county review.

The administration has also identified roughly 220 possible noncitizens who had voter registration and voting histories predating the MVC error, raising questions about whether the problem extends beyond the acknowledged software failure.

“If the department becomes aware of any issues or concerns with the operations of school elections, we would immediately make the appropriate agencies aware,” Yaple said.

State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland) said the elections should not proceed without stronger assurances that ineligible voters have been identified and removed.

“I don’t think elections should be moving forward without assurances that noncitizens will be prevented from voting in those elections until there is a full-blown investigation of noncitizens on voter rolls since the law was enacted in 2018 through the present day,” Testa said. “We need to know how many are on the voter rolls.”

Testa also questioned whether officials have conducted a sufficient review of previous election results.

“Have our voter rolls been properly purged of noncitizens?” he asked. “Were any elections affected?”

The Cumberland County Republican pointed to close county commissioner contests in 2024 and 2025.  Last year, Democrat Yolanda Garcia Balicki defeated Republican Commissioner Douglas Albrecht by 132 votes after trailing by 199 votes on election night.

It also remains unclear how local election officials will handle eligible U.S. citizens who may have been removed during the state’s review.  Some of the registrations set aside for county examination may belong to people who became citizens after their MVC transactions and are now legally entitled to vote.

The stakes are particularly pronounced in Roselle, where the September referendum comes one year after a Democratic council primary became mired in a months-long court battle over a handful of votes and claims that voters had been improperly disenfranchised.

Councilwoman Denise Wilkerson and challenger Cynthia Johnson were tied at 1,472 votes apiece during the post-election count.  Wilkerson was eventually certified as the winner by three votes, 1,496 to 1,493, before a court-ordered recount reduced her margin to two.

Superior Court Judge John Deitch later nullified the primary after finding that at least three voters had been disenfranchised.  He initially ordered a new primary but reversed himself after determining that he lacked the authority to schedule one so late in the election calendar.  Deitch instead directed local Democratic officials to select the nominee.

The Roselle Democratic Committee picked Johnson over Wilkerson by a 20-7 vote.  The Appellate Division and New Jersey Supreme Court allowed that decision to stand, and Johnson appeared on the general election ballot without Republican opposition.

Special school elections can be equally unforgiving, with low turnout allowing only a few ballots to decide whether districts may borrow tens of millions of dollars.

A $33.4 million bond referendum in the South Hunterdon Regional School District passed by just two votes in 2021 and survived a court challenge based on the residency of several voters – and the death of one.  Rahway voters approved a $37.7 million school improvement proposal that year by 12 votes.

In 2022, a $7.3 million Wallington school referendum was initially tied, 269-269, before additional ballots gave supporters a four-vote advantage.  Tenafly voters approved a $76.1 million construction plan by 12 votes in 2024 after the proposal trailed on election night.

A $39.1 million proposal in Mantua was defeated by 23 votes in December 2025.

In March, nearly 10,500 Montclair voters cast ballots on two school funding questions. One passed by roughly 300 votes, while the second failed by just 13.

The September proposals seek funding for school construction, capital improvements, repairs, renovations, and equipment upgrades.

Under the Educational Facilities and Construction and Financing Act of 2000, the state generally covers at least 40% of eligible school construction costs through annual debt-service aid when voters approve the borrowing.

The largest proposal is in the Morris School District, where voters will decide whether to authorize $158.4 million in borrowing for improvements at ten schools.  The district expects approximately $46.4 million in state assistance.