House Subpoenas New Jersey Over Thousands of Noncitizens Improperly Registered to Vote

Leaders of the House Judiciary and Administration Committees issued a subpoena Wednesday to New Jersey’s Acting Secretary of State, demanding records on how approximately 6,600 people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens became registered to vote through a Motor Vehicle Commission process.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil of Wisconsin, Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, and Administration Subcommittee on Elections Chair Laurel Lee of Florida sent the subpoena to Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu. The lawmakers stated that the New Jersey Department of State’s response to earlier requests has been inadequate, producing only 12 documents despite nearly three months of inquiries. They set a November 16 deadline for compliance.

Between June 2023 and June 2024, roughly 6,600 individuals who applied for driver’s licenses or identification cards at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens were nonetheless registered to vote. Among them were about 60 people who were incarcerated at the time and approximately 750 who had selected “no” during an age-eligibility prompt. State officials later determined that roughly 340 to 400 of those registrants cast ballots in elections during the period.

Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat who took office in 2026, has attributed the registrations to a software error involving the commission’s system during the prior administration of Gov. Phil Murphy. She has said her administration acted upon discovering the issue, removing more than 5,100 of the registrations, referring others for county review, and implementing reforms including daily audits and plans to replace the vendor. The problem was identified by the Motor Vehicle Commission in June 2024 and the related settings were adjusted, but the registrations remained on the rolls until the public disclosure in July 2026.

The software vendor, IDEMIA, has disputed the characterization of a software error. The company has stated that all 6,600 individuals indicated “yes” to wanting to register to vote and “no” to being a U.S. citizen, that this information was recorded correctly and available to state agencies, and that verification of eligibility and decisions on registration transmission rested with the New Jersey Division of Elections and Motor Vehicle Commission. IDEMIA noted that the state had approved the system’s design specifications.

The committees’ August 3 request sought documents and communications explaining how the issue was discovered, the state’s citizenship verification procedures, communications with the vendor, and efforts to identify and remove the noncitizens from the rolls. Lawmakers wrote that none of the documents produced to date explain those points or why remediation did not occur until 2026. They stated that the limited production has impeded their ability to conduct oversight of federal election laws and consider potential legislative reforms. The subpoena covers records related to the software process, discovery of the registrations, and subsequent cleanup efforts.

Van Drew said the state knew of the failure in 2024 yet the registrations remained on the rolls for nearly two years, and that hundreds of the individuals voted. He stated that initial requests yielded only a handful of documents that provided little insight. Sherrill has maintained that her administration responded promptly once informed, ordered an investigation, and made agency-wide changes to safeguard the voter rolls. Former Gov. Murphy’s office has said he was not previously aware of the software issue.

The House inquiry follows the state’s July disclosure of the registrations and the committees’ subsequent document demands. Mail-in voting for New Jersey’s November 3 elections is already underway. The committees have indicated that the records could inform review of federal requirements for accurate voter registration and the removal of ineligible individuals from state rolls.