The question on New Jersey's Motor Vehicle Commission form is about as simple as a government form gets: Are you a citizen of the United States?
For a full year, from June 2023 to June 2024, about 6,600 people checked "no," and New Jersey registered them to vote anyway. About 340 of them then cast ballots.
The state fixed the software problem in June 2024 but it never said a word to anyone about the 6,600 illegally registered voters or the 340 who committed voting fraud. Blue state officials hoped no one would ever ask them about it.
The illegal registrations sat on New Jersey's voter rolls for two more years until Gov. Mikie Sherrill's administration finally disclosed them in July 2026. In October, the state found roughly 1,090 more problem records: 750 people registered despite their answers to the age-eligibility question, and 340 records tied to prison re-entry paperwork going back to 2016.
House Republicans wanted to know how all of that happened. New Jersey sent them just 12 documents. The equivalent of a shrug and a non -chalant “Oh, well” comment.
On October 21, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, joined by Reps. Laurel Lee and Jeff Van Drew, subpoenaed Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu. They had spent 79 days asking for records on how New Jersey checks citizenship, enforces federal election law, and removes ineligible voters. In nearly three months, the state produced just 12 documents and claimed legal privilege over the rest.
"Without additional details, it strains credulity to believe that every document responsive to the Committees' request that has not been produced is privileged," the lawmakers wrote. The state's "refusal to engage with specificity," they said, "has unnecessarily impeded the Committees' oversight."
Van Drew, who represents South Jersey, was blunter. "Instead of getting answers, we got political attacks and a handful of documents that explain next to nothing," he said.
The documents are due November 16.
The political attacks came from the top. Sherrill called the investigation "political theater." "When we discover a problem," she said, "we communicate the facts and fix it."
New Jersey fixed the software in 2024 and didn't tell voters until 2026. Van Drew says the state knew about the problem back in 2024.
Then there's the finger-pointing. Sherrill's administration blames IDEMIA, the contractor that runs the MVC's registration software, and plans to replace it. IDEMIA says its system recorded exactly what applicants told it. In other words, the software captured the "no," and New Jersey's process registered those people anyway. Sherrill has also blamed the administration of her Democratic predecessor, Phil Murphy, while Murphy's team denies responsibility.
So far, the state has deleted about 5,100 of the illegal registrations and sent about 1,450 more to county officials for review. The 340 ballots that were already cast can't be taken back. They were counted in New Jersey elections right alongside the votes of American citizens.
Democrats have spent years insisting that noncitizen voting is a myth and that anyone who raises it is spreading misinformation. They've blocked the SAVE America Act, the Republican bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.
New Jersey shows why the bill matters. The state asked people whether they were citizens. Thousands said no, and the state registered them anyway. The only safeguard was a checkbox, and New Jersey ignored it.
Now the state that ignored the checkbox is treating a congressional subpoena the same way. Thirteen days before the midterms, New Jersey has given Congress 12 documents to explain 6,600 illegal registrations and 340 ballots that should never have been cast.
