Over the last few months, officials in the state of New Jersey have been working to uncover what went wrong when thousands of noncitizens were added to New Jersey’s voter rolls during the state’s previous administration because of an error.
In a new update shared by Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration on Oct. 7, it was revealed that there were two issues that were discovered and changes are underway to the system at the Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC).
While reviewing the reported error, there were 750 more records that had been impacted between June 2023 and June 2024, officials said.
In these instances, the residents appeared to have selected “no” by accident when verifying that they were old enough to vote, according to the report. No one under the proper voting age was able to vote due to this error.
The report also found about 340 cases where an incarcerated person wrongly said they were able to vote even though they were no longer allowed to due to their sentencing.
The governor had previously said the 6,600 people initially registered through the software error had identified themselves as noncitizens during the registration process.
Changes coming to the MVC system after voter error
Several changes have already been implemented at the Motor Vehicle Commission or are about to begin in order to avoid more errors to the voter rolls, officials said.
Among the reforms are a daily pre-transfer audit where it will verify every record and flag incomplete or inconsistent responses by residents. This new audit system will also include a new plan to escalate any inconsistencies or issues.
The changes to the system will also include things that New Jerseyans will see in order to make a clearer and more accessible process to register to vote.
This will include having the registration questions available in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and simplified Chinese. Plus, there will now be handheld devices that will translate over 80 languages.
Also, the MVC will be updating their website to make their registration information pages easier to follow and can be translated into more languages.
What led to these MVC changes in NJ?
A software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to around 6,600 non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote, according to Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
Sherrill made the announcement during a press conference in Trenton on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.
Sherrill said the errors happened between June 2023 and June 2024, while her predecessor, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, was in office.
Sherrill said fewer than 400 people who were registered due to the error actually voted in New Jersey. The individuals were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state, according to Sherrill. She did not reveal the exact amount of people who were mistakenly registered to each party.
Sherrill said she immediately ordered her chief counsel to launch an investigation after she learned about the error.
