# NJ MVC registered 6600 non-citizens to vote 3 years ago **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 21, 2026, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834 "2026-07-21T20:03:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/21 "2026-07-23T12:27:02Z")
I think that is the case. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/22 "2026-07-23T13:03:01Z")
Do they know how many voted, if any? ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/23 "2026-07-23T13:06:20Z")
> [@Thumper668](#): > > Our preliminary analysis shows fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered for the first time because of the error voted. It’s in the original quote from the Governor. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/24 "2026-07-23T14:35:29Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > So, maybe the erroneously registered ones decided to vote in a primary. Is that actually criminal? A primary just decides what candidate a given party is going to run in the actual future election, so it seems that ought to be a civil matter between the party and the ineligible voter. But then again, the American electoral system is strange, and I gather it may be the state and not the political parties themselves that administer the primaries. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/25 "2026-07-23T14:48:15Z")
I think the state must administer it in NJ – same machines, same places. Anyway, even if voting in the primary isn’t criminal, I imagine the 400 votes the governor mentioned were probably general election votes. I was just showing how easy it is to become a Dem or Rep in NJ. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/26 "2026-07-23T15:10:26Z")
For that matter, a state could allow noncitizens to vote even in general elections. None do, because it’d be political suicide for anyone to propose it, but it’d be Constitutional. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/27 "2026-07-23T17:34:26Z")
Thanks. As long as they are identifying and correcting, all good. I think it’s known that it is happening at low levels in general. It’s why the media always has to characterize the lack of voter fraud as “insignificant” or no evidence of voter fraud that would “sway the election”. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/28 "2026-07-23T20:55:50Z")
> [@CoolHandCox](#): > > It’s why the media always has to characterize the lack of voter fraud as “insignificant” or no evidence of voter fraud that would “sway the election”. I think most reasonable people recognize that. My concern is less that it happened than for the fodder it provides to the MAGA masses who have demonstrated over and over that they are not reasonable people. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/29 "2026-07-23T23:49:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For that matter, a state could allow noncitizens to vote even in general elections. None do, because it’d be political suicide for anyone to propose it, but it’d be Constitutional. Not full states, but [there are places](https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_permitting_noncitizens_to_vote_in_the_United_States) where noncitizens are explicitly allowed to vote in local elections, including DC, San Francisco (for Board of Education elections), and municipalities in Maryland and Vermont. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/30 "2026-07-24T00:33:11Z")
[Politico: Contractor disputes Mikie Sherrill’s claims of NJ voter registration software error](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/23/contractor-disputes-mikie-sherrills-claims-of-nj-voter-registration-software-error-01010689) > [@](#): > > All 6,600 individuals indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘No’ to being a US Citizen,” Lisa Shoemaker, IDEMIA’s senior vice president of global corporate relations, said in a statement. “This information was recorded correctly and always available to the MVC via the database that MVC utilized to gather voter information and transmit to the Division of Elections. At no point was a noncitizen ever marked as a citizen in the database.” > > In June 2024, Shoemaker said, the MVC requested that IDEMIA change its settings so that those who indicated they were noncitizens were automatically marked as declining to register to vote. That solved the issue going forward, but the 6,600 people mistakenly added to the rolls in the year prior were not removed or disclosed publicly until now. > > At an unrelated press conference on Thursday, Sherrill continued laying the blame on IDEMIA . . . Real story? Too soon to say, except that errors happen and should not be blown out of proportion. It now appears that than less than 400 of the 6,600 (that is, less than 6 percent) of the people who clicked on the software, that they were non-citizens, later voted. Some of these less than 6 percent almost surely were non-citizens when they applied for their driver license but had become citizens before voting. Some of those less than 6 percent almost surely were citizens who accidentally clicked the non-citizen box. EDIT: Is my last sentence above correct? I’m not 100 percent sure. But if I am correct there, it would only take a tiny percentage of citizens accidentally clicking the non-citizen box for the whole thing to be a nothingburger. ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/31 "2026-07-24T00:47:23Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > for the whole thing to be a nothingburger. I am 90% convinced the whole thing IS a nothingburger. Except… well, see my previous comment. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/32 "2026-07-24T00:53:35Z")
> [@Thumper668](#): > > I am 90% convinced the whole thing IS a nothingburger. Except… well, see my previous comment. I agree with your comments. It’s just a question of how nothing of a nothingburger it is. Citizen? That may have sounded, to one or two percent of those applying to drive, like what their great grandmother become when she took the citizen test. Me, I’m no citizen. I’m an American. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2026, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834/33 "2026-07-26T01:28:12Z")
I’m may lose some of you when I say I got this next link from one of Trump’s Truth Social posts, but it does not mean what Trump implies. And it lends credence my idea that a lot of the supposed less than 400 non-citizen New Jersey voters actually were citizens who naturalized after applying for their driver license, but before voting. The story this time is from Alaska: [Alaska removes thousands from state’s active voter list, erroneously flagging some citizens](https://alaskabeacon.com/2026/07/23/alaska-removes-thousands-from-states-active-voter-list-erroneously-flagging-some-citizens/) > [@](#): > > Chris Waigl of Fairbanks got her Alaska driver’s license in 2019 and became an American citizen in 2025. She became alarmed after checking her registration status last weekend, only to learn that she was listed as “inactive – non citizen.” . . . > > But Waigl went further, contacting four other people who became naturalized citizens at the same time she did. Of those, only one said they were still listed as an active voter. So why is a nobody like me making these points rather than, AFAIK, congressional Democrats? I’m afraid it is because the sausage-making details of voter registration are too easily distorted to make something low-volume and innocent sound like a disgraceful problem. Democratic Party politicians need something they can explain in a soundbite, and unless you are willing to lie, that won’t work here. Or are Democratic Party politicians already making these points? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nj-mvc-registered-6600-non-citizens-to-vote-3-years-ago/1031834.md?page=1)