Oh lovely. This is going to do nothing but fuel the MAGA conspiracy theories. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill posted the following on Facebook a few hours ago :
Gov. Sherrill’s Facebook page
Last week I learned 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. These individuals answered “no” when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen when applying for drivers’ licenses and identification cards, but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway.
This happened under the previous administration and, upon learning this information, I immediately ordered my chief counsel to launch an investigation to get to the bottom of what occurred. I also ordered the removal of any residents from our voter rolls who were erroneously added between June 2023 and June 2024. The new MVC Administrator that I appointed has begun the process of replacing the vendor responsible for administering the system.
Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted. They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state.
I want to underscore how seriously I take this matter. As a military veteran who swore an oath to defend our Constitution, and as a former federal prosecutor, I believe the integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy. I am appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time. This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now. I am taking action to prevent anything like it from occurring in the future and make sure those responsible are held accountable.
As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections. Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity. For more than ten years, he has worked to undermine Americans’ faith in our elections by spreading lies about legitimate election results, attempting to overturn a free and fair election, encouraging an attack on our Capitol when he couldn’t accept the will of the voters, and defunding election security at the federal level.
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. That’s what accountability and good governance look like, and that’s exactly what my administration is doing.
New Jerseyans should have confidence that every eligible citizen can vote, every lawful vote will be counted, and every reasonable step will be taken to protect the integrity of our elections. That’s my responsibility, and it’s one I will never stop fighting to uphold.
Just glad she discovered it before the conspiracy mongers did and acted appropriately. Won’t keep them from hysterics, but will make it less likely anyone else pays attention.
Yes, her point about admitting it, fixing it, and not inventing conspiracy theories will, hopefully, carry a lot of weight. Her direct slam on Trump was nice. I hope it isn’t for Facebook only.
I am a little uncomfortable when seeing statements about how incredibly unlikely it is that someone votes who is not legally allowed to. Maybe that is true. But maybe most election glitches are never discovered. I tend to think the latter, and something like this is going to happen from time to time.
As for affecting election results, that’s what’s incredibly unlikely, both because a few hundred votes hardly ever matter, and because immigrant votes go to both parties.
Most likely, some of the registrations being pulled will be for immigrants who were not citizens at the time they got their driver license, but are now
How many of these were citizens by the time they voted?
Well, in this case I can see how that they could legitimately think they legally could vote. But undocumented aliens going so far as to register to vote and then vote on their own? Rare and unlikely. They stay under the radar.
What it would have been better for me to write is this: There are more cases than we might hope where there is some sort of innocent mistake on the part of the election system, whether it is votes accidentally recorded for the wrong candidate, or poor ballot design, or any other violation of best practices. With the notable exception of the Bush/Gore butterfly ballot, they rarely matter, and are a little like victimless crimes in that the authorities usually would not know about them. In the case today, someone did notice, and that’s when it should be investigated in a non-paranoid spirit of improving for next time.
So does anyone have any idea what number actually voted. Because if it zero or very low, which is most likely, then it says something about how rare voter fraud is even when they have a chance to vote.
The quoted part of the article in the OP says “fewer than 400” which to me means probably between 350 and 400. Not completely insignificant but not that much either (less than 6% of those accidentally registered.
I hope those people won’t be prosecuted. Sure, they “should” have known they weren’t eligible to vote and that the voter registration card they got in the mail was issued in error, but they shouldn’t be punished for relying on what the State told them.
I would point out that the DMV and Public Welfare agencies, such as the one I worked at were only put in “registering folks to vote” business because of a court decision growing out of previous Republican election fuckery. The folks where I worked frankly resented having to take on this additional burden, given that we already had more job than time.
Most common errors are - man gets his and his deceased fathers ballot- they have the same thing except “jr.” The man accidentally uses his fathers ballot. Trumpeted by the MAGAs as “dead man voting”. Next- voter gets the ballot from where he used to live, and votes that way- can be Okay in some circumstances.
