New Jersey election officials delete 5,100 registrations tied to MVC software error

State election officials have deleted the voter registrations of approximately 5,100 people whose information was improperly sent to county election officials because of a software error at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.

Another 1,450 registrations connected to the same problem have been placed in rejected status pending further review, Donna Barber, the executive director of the New Jersey Division of Elections, told county election officials in an email Friday.

The action follows the discovery that about 6,600 noncitizens were mistakenly transmitted to the Statewide Voter Registration System despite indicating on an MVC touchpad that they were not U.S. citizens and were ineligible to vote.

“During SVRS system downtime, NJDOE copied and preserved the SVRS system,” Barber said. “Then, NJDOE modified the voter status of individuals impacted by the software error.”

Senate Minority Leader Anthony M. Bucco (R-Boonton) said the state’s action does not resolve questions about the scope of the problem and renewed his call for a bipartisan legislative investigation.

“While there is optimism in the administration finally taking steps to address this voter registration disaster, shutting down the system to ‘clean up’ the voter rolls doesn’t answer the many serious questions that remain,” Bucco said. “Why is the review limited to just a two-year period, and how can anyone say with confidence that only 6,600 non-citizens were improperly registered?”

Bucco said county election officials have reported cases involving people who may have registered through methods other than the MVC.

“Ocean County identified more than 100 voters who were removed from the rolls after the statewide system came back online because they were flagged as non-citizens, including 12 who had voted,” he said.  “It is my understanding that some of those individuals were not registered through the MVC but instead used paper registration forms or other methods.”

Bucco said the allegations suggest the issue may be broader than the MVC software error acknowledged by the administration.

“The only way to restore public confidence is with a bipartisan Select Committee with subpoena power to uncover the full truth and provide the transparency and accountability New Jersey voters deserve,” he said.

The error occurred between June 2023 and June 2024 and affected responses to a touchpad questionnaire used during certain MVC transactions.  In the affected cases, the MVC sent individuals’ information to county election officials even though they had answered “No” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens.

Those individuals also did not attest that they were eligible to vote, as required under state and federal law.

The roughly 5,100 people moved to deleted status had no valid voter registration or other documentation in the SVRS containing an attestation that they were eligible to vote, Barber said.

The remaining 1,450 people were placed in rejected status because they had another registration or transaction in the system that may include an eligibility attestation.  That group will require a more detailed examination before election officials determine whether they are legally registered.

The distinction could be significant because some people initially affected by the MVC error may later have become citizens or may have submitted valid voter-registration applications through another channel.

Barber said the Division of Elections will send county officials lists of individuals requiring additional eligibility reviews in the coming days.

“Please expect additional guidance,” she said.

The state is also notifying affected individuals of their current registration status.

The MVC error became public last month, when Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration disclosed that approximately 6,600 noncitizens had been mistakenly registered.  About 400 of them cast ballots in the 2024 election, representing roughly .009% of all votes cast statewide.

State officials have attributed the registrations to a software failure, not to individuals falsely claiming citizenship. The affected people had explicitly indicated that they were not citizens, and the transactions lacked the legally required eligibility attestation.

The state temporarily took the voter-registration system offline to preserve its records and make the status changes.  County election officials will now be responsible for reviewing the approximately 1,450 cases involving a potentially valid registration or separate eligibility attestation.