GOP erupts over 6,600 noncitizen voters found in blue state as scandal deepens: ‘Worse than anyone expected’
Republican outrage went into overdrive after New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced that the state had mistakenly registered 6,600 noncitizen voters, prompting calls for an immediate end to automatic voter registration through the New Jersey Motor Vehicle System (MVC).
Sherrill announced on Tuesday that a "serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, almost three years prior to my taking office." Sherrill said preliminary analysis indicates that 400 individuals voted due to the error.
Republican state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon told Fox News Digital that New Jersey Republicans have been raising concerns about the MVC registration system for years and "each time we were reassured that this ‘could never happen.’"
"It happened, and it’s worse than anyone expected," he said.
DEMOCRAT NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SAYS THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS DISCOVERED ON VOTER ROLLS, PURGED
In light of the error, O’Scanlon called for a pause on all voter registrations through the MVC until a thorough investigation is completed for every registration processed through the system. He emphasized that beyond any software glitch, when state Democrats "made it law for noncitizens to obtain driver’s licenses, Republicans warned that this very problem could occur."
"If we know that more than 6,000 noncitizens were improperly registered to vote over two years, why on earth would we stop the investigation there? This system has been in place for years. We should be reviewing every registration processed through the MVC over the last decade," he told Fox News Digital. "Until that thorough investigation is complete, the MVC should suspend all voter registrations."
In a Tuesday news conference, Sherrill emphasized that the mistake did not occur while she was in office. She criticized her predecessor, former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, the MVC and the state’s software contractor, IDEMIA, for their alleged role in the scandal.
"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," said Sherrill.
IDEMIA, however, released a statement pushing back on Sherrill’s assertion that its software is to blame.
The company said that its role is to "transmit information through the motor vehicle system" and that the New Jersey Department of State’s Division of Elections "is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote."
This comes as President Donald Trump and Republicans push for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which proponents say would crack down on noncitizen voting.
Vice President JD Vance called on New Jersey senators to vote in favor of the SAVE America Act, writing in a tongue-in-cheek post on X, "If only there was a way to stop this type of ‘software error’ that allowed non-citizens to vote in our elections."
"I hope Senators @CoryBooker and @SenatorAndyKim will join us in voting to pass the SAVE America Act to ensure that only eligible American voters can participate in New Jersey elections, and all elections across the United States," wrote Vance.
New Jersey’s junior U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, however, said during an interview with MSNBC that "this is something that needs fixing, but it’s not this widespread systemic problem that Trump has been using and weaponizing to try to push forward a very extreme agenda," according to Breitbart.
Kim said that "this is unacceptable and this needs to be fixed immediately and needs people need to be held accountable," but added, "We also need to make sure that we’re looking at the problems in the right size, that this is not akin to what Donald Trump was talking about."
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Ally Triolo, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, reacted by telling Fox News Digital that "Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge that the thousands of noncitizens found on New Jersey’s voter rolls represent exactly the kind of election integrity failure President Trump highlighted last week proves one thing: their hatred of the President matters more than doing what is right for voters and securing American elections once and for all."
Back in the state capitol in Trenton, New Jersey Assembly Republican Leader John DiMaio called for both a halt to automatic MVC registrations and a "top-to-bottom" audit of the state’s voter rolls. He believes the problem "is much more pervasive than 6,600 noncitizen voters."
"New Jersey Republicans have been sounding the alarm for years that the automatic voter registration process at the MVC was highly problematic," said DiMaio. "Until citizens are 100% assured that not one illegal resident will be mistakenly or intentionally registered to vote, the automatic process should be immediately halted."
He also called on Sherrill to "put politics aside for once and focus on election integrity" by cooperating with the federal government to "get all the non-citizens off the rolls."
In the state senate, Minority Leader Anthony Bucco told Fox News Digital that many of the issues stem from "the fact that New Jersey has been allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license since 2020."
"Over six years ago, Trenton Democrats chose to allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses despite our opposition, and they placed voter registration in the hands of the MVC—an agency with a long history of administrative failures," he explained.
New Jersey Sen. Kristin Corrado, who serves as ranking member of the state Judiciary Committee, said that before the scandal broke out, she had sent six letters to the Murphy administration warning of voter registration issues.
"Democrats wrote this law, Democrats implemented this process, and Democrats failed to fix the obvious problems that followed," she said. "Now we are learning that a catastrophic government failure allowed thousands of non-citizens to be registered to vote, and suddenly everyone is acting surprised."
Republican Assemblyman Greg McGuckin likened the 400 illegal votes to "negating the votes of U.S. citizens."
"The problem is much larger than Democrats are willing to admit," he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill, Murphy, Kim, Booker, New Jersey Senate President Nicholas Scutari and General Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin for comment.