CNN host admits he was wrong to say illegal immigrant voting 'never happens' after New Jersey error
CNN and SiriusXM host Michael Smerconish acknowledged Wednesday on "The Michael Smerconish Program" that he could no longer claim noncitizen voting never occurred after New Jersey disclosed that a software error improperly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens and fewer than 400 cast ballots.
"I can’t say that any longer," Smerconish said. "I don’t know how often it does happen, but I can’t say any longer, ‘This never happens.’"
Smerconish said he had previously reached the opposite conclusion after discussing a January New York Times analysis titled "Initial Review Finds No Widespread Illegal Voting by Migrants, Puncturing a Trump Claim." The analysis found no evidence of widespread fraud but noted that noncitizens sometimes appeared on voter rolls.
Smerconish said the New Jersey disclosure would give President Donald Trump and his allies a lasting response when opponents disputed that noncitizen voting occurred.
"'Well, what about New Jersey?' See, it actually does happen," Smerconish said, in a clip flagged by Mediaite.
Political analyst Mark Halperin agreed that the disclosure undercut categorical claims about noncitizen voting while cautioning that more information was needed before conclusions could be reached about its scale.
"Based on what we now know, the thing that Democrats said doesn’t happen happened," Halperin said. "And it’s not right to take the word of the Democratic governor of New Jersey about what actually happened."
Halperin called for an independent investigation into how the registrations occurred, whether the same problem appeared elsewhere and whether New Jersey’s estimate captured the full extent of the error.
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"If it happened by accident on this small scale, it requires a lot more explanation and investigation about whether it’s happened in New Jersey more or elsewhere," Halperin said. "But the scale is not very significant. So we need to know more."
Fox News Digital reached out to New Jersey Gov. Mike Sherrill for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Sherrill said the error affected people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens while applying for driver's licenses or identification cards between June 2023 and June 2024. The system nevertheless registered them to vote.
"Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted," Sherrill said. "They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state."
Sherrill ordered the affected registrations removed, launched an investigation and began replacing IDEMIA, the vendor involved with the Motor Vehicle Commission system. She blamed failures under former Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's administration.
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"This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now," Sherrill said.
IDEMIA disputed efforts to place responsibility solely on the company, telling Fox News Digital that New Jersey election officials were responsible for determining eligibility.
"The voter registration information is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote," IDEMIA said.
The Justice Department subsequently demanded information about the 6,600 registrations and the fewer than 400 people who voted. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon gave the state five days to provide names, registration details and voting records.
"Ensuring that U.S. citizens’ votes are not illegally diluted by noncitizens’ votes is of paramount importance," Dhillon said.