All 23 Assembly Republicans are asking Speaker Craig Coughlin to create a special bipartisan legislative committee with subpoena power to investigate how a software failure at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission resulted in roughly 6,600 noncitizens being registered to vote and nearly 400 casting ballots.
The lawmakers said an investigation commissioned by Gov. Mikie Sherrill is insufficient and called on the legislature to conduct an independent public inquiry into the MVC, the Division of Elections and IDEMIA, the state contractor blamed for the error.
“This matter cannot be left solely to an internal executive branch investigation,” the Republicans said in a letter to Coughlin.
The proposed Special Legislative Committee on Election Integrity would have an equal number of Democratic and Republican members, co-chairs selected by the majority and minority leaders, and the authority to compel testimony and obtain documents, records and electronic data.
The letter calls for testimony under oath from former acting MVC chief administrator Latrecia Littles-Floyd, former Secretary of State Tahesha Way, current Lt. Governor and Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, and senior IDEMIA officials involved in developing and certifying the voter registration system.
Way, who was also the lieutenant governor, served as the state’s chief election officer during the Murphy administration, when the faulty software was in operation. Littles-Floyd led the MVC throughout the period in which improper registrations allegedly occurred.
Republicans also want the committee to determine when officials at the MVC and the Murphy administration first learned of the problem, why it was not disclosed publicly and why additional safeguards were not adopted after separate voter registration errors in 2020 and 2025.
The software problem began in June 2023 and continued until June 2024. Noncitizens who indicated at MVC agencies that they were not citizens were nevertheless routed into the automatic voter registration system.
Sherrill, who took office in January, said she learned of the problem last week and immediately ordered an independent investigation. She called the failure unacceptable, criticized IDEMIA for releasing defective software and faulted the MVC for taking a year to correct it.
The Division of Elections is working to identify and remove ineligible registrations before the November general election. Sherrill has also said the state is phasing out IDEMIA’s voter registration technology.
The Republican demand comes as the Trump administration intensifies federal scrutiny of New Jersey’s voter rolls. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state Wednesday, alleging that New Jersey failed to provide records concerning the 6,600 registrations and related voting histories.
Federal officials have separately asserted that 35,152 non-citizens are registered to vote in New Jersey, a figure nearly five times larger than the number disclosed by the Sherrill administration. State officials have not accepted that figure, and it is unclear whether the two numbers were compiled using comparable data or standards.
Assembly Republicans said the discrepancy itself demands legislative scrutiny.
The letter was signed by Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio (R-Hackettstown) and the other 22 members of his caucus.
Republicans said public hearings and sworn testimony are needed to restore trust in the state’s elections.
“Every New Jersey citizen who cast a lawful ballot deserves confidence that the state’s voter registration system is accurate and secure,” the GOP lawmakers said.