MVC Shuts Down Again: Here's What Happened

For the second time in two weeks, the Motor Vehicle Commission's computers were down on Monday, and so were its operations. By 1 p.m., the problem was resolved and the system was operational.

The MVC confirmed to Patch that a technical problem shut down its computer operations at its various sites and online. The agency then referred Patch to the Office of Information Technology, where the problem originated.

The outage prevented the MVC from processing transactions, including driver’s license and vehicle registration renewals, from the opening hour until around 1 p.m.

The MVC said the outage is a residual effect connected to last week's problems, when the operations were shut down from June 2 through 4. The OIT went offline because of a fire suppression system issue.

Last week's outage prompted lawmakers such as Sen. Sam Thompson, R-Middlesex, to criticize state officials and call the news "especially disheartening."

“It’s clear that we shouldn’t push the NJMVC into New Jersey’s election process when they can’t even complete their core mission of issuing licenses and registering vehicles without repeated crashes of their computer systems," he said.

“Given the limitations of their aging IT infrastructure, I have little confidence in the NJMVC’s technical capability to automatically register voters while filtering out the thousands of ineligible illegals the Democrats are now sending through their doors for driver’s licenses. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

This is a developing story. Patch will have more information as it comes in.

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