The U.S. Department of Justice has seized on New Jersey’s disclosure that a software failure registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote — including about 400 who cast ballots — as a new basis for its federal lawsuit seeking access to the state’s voter rolls.
In a filing Tuesday night, Justice Department lawyers formally notified a federal judge that Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s announcement bolsters their demand for an electronic copy of New Jersey’s statewide voter registration list.
“The Division must also verify that no other noncitizens remain on New Jersey’s voter rolls, in violation of federal law,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jesus Osete told Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, who also serves as secretary of state, in a letter filed with the court.
The filing escalates an already contentious legal battle between the Trump administration and New Jersey over the state’s refusal to turn over its voter registration database.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division first requested the voter list last year, saying it needed the records to determine whether New Jersey was complying with federal voter-list maintenance laws. When state officials declined to provide it, the federal government sued Caldwell.
Now, Justice Department lawyers contend that the registration of thousands of self-identified noncitizens gives them an additional justification for examining the state’s records.
“This correspondence provides an additional basis for the foregoing request,” Osete wrote.
Sherrill revealed Tuesday that a software error at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission resulted in approximately 6,600 people being registered between June 2023 and June 2024 despite indicating that they were not U.S. citizens.
Fewer than 400 of them subsequently voted, according to the governor.
The affected residents had answered “no” when asked whether they were citizens while applying for driver’s licenses or state identification cards. But the MVC’s computer system transmitted their information for voter registration anyway.
The error was corrected in June 2024, but state officials did not publicly disclose it until this week. Sherrill, who took office in January, said she learned about the problem last Wednesday and immediately ordered an independent investigation.
“This entire situation is unacceptable,” Sherrill said at a Statehouse press conference. “It’s unacceptable that the vendor released software with such a glaring error. It’s unacceptable that the MVC took a year to get this issue fixed, and it’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability or acted when it happened years ago.”
The state is working to identify and remove ineligible registrants before the November general election. Sherrill has said the investigation will examine how the error occurred, why it was not disclosed earlier and which elections involved ballots cast by the affected voters.
The Justice Department said it remains unknown which elections the roughly 400 noncitizens voted in or whether any of their ballots affected the result of a race.
Federal lawyers filed Osete’s letter as a “notice of additional basis” in the pending case, United States v. Caldwell, in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Osete said the Justice Department wants the statewide voter list “to ascertain New Jersey’s compliance with the list maintenance requirements” of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
The department initially sought the database in letters sent to New Jersey officials in July and August 2025. Caldwell’s office refused to produce it, prompting the federal lawsuit.
The case is before U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi, who has become the go-to federal judge for New Jersey election matters.
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