35K Non-Citizens Registered To Vote In NJ, Trump Says

Federal officials took aim at New Jersey's handling of its voter rolls, seizing on Gov. Mikie Sherrill's disclosure that thousands of noncitizens had been mistakenly registered to vote during the prior administration to push for national voter ID requirements.

The White House released a statement Tuesday, framing the error as evidence of lax election oversight under Democratic leadership. The statement called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require states to verify voter citizenship through the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE system — a safeguard the release said New Jersey has not adopted.

"Every illegal ballot dilutes the voice of a lawful American citizen and undermines election integrity," the White House said. "These incidents are not random errors; they are the predictable result of Democrat policies that refuse to verify citizenship."

President Donald Trump weighed in separately on Truth Social, pointing to a different Department of Homeland Security figure: "35,152 is the new number just released by Homeland Security of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey," he wrote, urging lawmakers to "pass The Save America Act."

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson added in a statement that "Democrats and their media allies have repeatedly said it is impossible for noncitizens to register to vote, let alone cast a ballot. Time and again, they have been proven wrong. As President Trump has said, there is nothing more important than the integrity of our elections."

The criticism follows Sherrill's Tuesday announcement that a software error in the state's Motor Vehicle Commission system registered roughly 6,600 people who had indicated they were not U.S. citizens, with fewer than 400 of them going on to vote. The error occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, under former Gov. Phil Murphy's administration. Sherrill said she learned of the issue last week, ordered an investigation by her chief counsel, and directed the removal of anyone erroneously added to the voter rolls during that period. The MVC has also begun replacing the vendor responsible for the system.

The disclosure followed a July 16 letter from DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to New Jersey Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, which cited a preliminary federal review finding as many as 35,152 potential noncitizen registrations in the state.

New Jersey Senate Republican Leader Anthony M. Bucco (R-Morris, Passaic) said the revelation "raises serious concerns that demand a transparent and independent investigation," and called for that investigation to extend back to 2020, when the state began allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

"This situation underscores the consequences of policy decisions that Republicans warned about from the beginning," Bucco said. "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."

Bucco called for New Jersey to immediately suspend its automatic voter registration program until the investigation concludes and for the state to enact a voter identification requirement.

"At the very least, New Jersey should immediately suspend its automatic voter registration program until the investigation is complete and state officials publicly announce their findings, corrective actions, and next steps," Bucco said. "It is also time for New Jersey to enact a voter identification requirement. ... New Jersey residents deserve assurance that our voter registration system is accurate, secure, and worthy of their trust."

On Tuesday Sherrill pushed back on the criticism, saying the state's error was distinct from the DHS review and defending her administration's handling of the issue once discovered.

"Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity," Sherrill said Tuesday. "The difference is simple: when we find a problem, we don't hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we fix it, and we tell the public."

Patch reached out to the governor's office for an updated comment on this story.

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