Rosalie Johnson, Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s newly appointed chief administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, had already begun the process of firing IDEMIA before learning that an alleged software error had improperly placed roughly 6,600 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls, the governor said today.
Sherrill also said New Jersey would not turn over personally identifying information about those individuals to the Trump administration, arguing that the federal government could not be trusted to use the data responsibly or keep it secure.
“We are not in the practice of turning this kind of personally identifying data over to the federal government, because we have seen them weaponize it,” Sherrill said. “I’ve seen it personally. They are working to weaponize personal data, and they don’t have a reputation for keeping it private either. We’ve seen data breaches again and again and again.”
Johnson’s move to replace IDEMIA, the French identity and security software company linked to the voter registration glitch, began before Sherrill said she learned last Wednesday that a software failure had registered non-citizens to vote despite their answering “no” when asked if they were United States citizens.
Sherrill said IDEMIA’s handling of the MVC’s troubled computer systems had already convinced her administration that the company needed to go.
“I think it’s well known that the Motor Vehicle Commission has been a mess,” Sherrill said. “And IDEMIA is at the heart of that. Long wait times, bureaucracy, red tape.”
The governor said the problems at the MVC were why she recruited Johnson, who previously held a senior motor vehicles position in Colorado, to take control of the long-troubled agency.
“This predates my understanding as of last Wednesday of what occurred, just my understanding of the MVC as in failure,” Sherrill said. “It’s why I recruited Rosalie, because she had a fantastic reputation there, because we knew that, for example, REAL ID wait times were among the worst in the nation, and the pickup of REAL ID was among the worst in the nation.”
Sherrill said the MVC’s problems had become so severe that New Jersey residents were being advised to obtain passports rather than wait for REAL ID appointments.
“People were being told, go get a passport because that’ll be faster,” she said. “That’s the disarray that was going on there. That’s what IDEMIA was running poorly.”
Johnson was already moving to terminate the state’s relationship with IDEMIA when Sherrill learned about the voter registration problem.
“The commissioner was already in the process of removing them for their incompetence,” Sherrill said.
IDEMIA has disputed the administration’s attempt to blame the company for the registration. The company said it transmitted voter registration information to the Division of Elections, but that state election officials remained responsible for determining whether applicants were eligible to vote.
Sherrill rejected IDEMIA’s effort to place responsibility on the state.
“And now to suggest somehow that the fact that they had a huge software error like this for a year that they did not catch is somehow not something they were responsible for,” she said. “I mean, this is why we’re getting rid of them.”
The software problem occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, when Latrecia Littles-Floyd, an appointee of Gov. Phil Murphy, was at the helm of motor vehicles.
While applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards, roughly 6,600 people answered “no” on an MVC keypad when asked whether they were United States citizens. Their information was nevertheless transmitted for voter registration.
Fewer than 400 of those individuals ultimately cast ballots, according to the Sherrill administration. They were registered as Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters and were scattered throughout the state.
Sherrill said she learned of the problem last Wednesday and moved quickly to begin an independent investigation.
“So, we move very quickly because the people of New Jersey obviously deserve accountability and transparency,” she said. “We’re running an independent investigation right now to get to the bottom of exactly how this happened and what’s going on.”
The investigation will examine how the software failure occurred, who knew about it and why the problem was not disclosed publicly.
“They are canvassing everyone, and they’ll get to the bottom of it,” stated Sherrill.
Asked why it had taken two years for the problem to become public, Sherrill said she did not yet have an answer.
“I don’t know, but it’s unacceptable,” she said.
The disclosure came days after President Donald Trump alleged that 35,152 non-citizens were registered to vote in New Jersey. Trump has also claimed that roughly 250,000 non-citizens were registered across New Jersey, California, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Sherrill accused the Trump administration of attempting to use the MVC failure against immigrants instead of helping New Jersey determine what went wrong.
“It is not a surprise to me that the federal government, that the Trump administration wants to immediately weaponize this against people, as opposed to focusing on making sure that we’re running free and fair elections,” she said. “That’s my focus.”
Sherrill then launched a broader attack on Trump’s record on elections.
“I would say, again, that Trump has done more to undermine our election system than anyone in my lifetime, including Vladimir Putin,” Sherrill said. “He has attacked the 2020 election, which he ran. He also sent out an insurrection against us when we were trying to certify that election. He then has defunded all the ways in which we protect and keep our elections safe.”
“So contrary to what he’s doing here in New Jersey, we are focused on running fair elections and getting to the bottom of what took place,” Sherrill said.
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January 28, 2018 -
