N.J. Governor Refuses DOJ Request on Voter Rolls

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Tuesday that she will defy a Department of Justice request to provide information regarding noncitizens listed on the state's voter rolls.

Sherrill, a Democrat, revealed July 21 that a review found a software error at the state Motor Vehicle Commission led to 6,600 noncitizens being registered to vote in New Jersey from 2023 to 2024, with roughly 400 of them improperly casting ballots.

That same day, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who leads DOJ's Civil Rights Division, sent Sherrill a letter requesting, within five business days, information on the 6,600 individuals, including their full names, dates of birth, nationalities, home addresses, and registration dates and locations.

Dhillon also requested information on the 400 who voted, including when and where they voted and, if by mail, whether the ballots included the required certification and signature under state law.

"Today, I informed @AAGDhillon that New Jersey will not provide the personal information of thousands of New Jersey residents," Sherrill wrote on X. "The request had no legal basis, and I will always protect New Jerseyans' personally identifiable information."

Dhillon wrote on X that Sherrill's decision does nothing to protect law-abiding New Jersey voters.

"NJ has a legal duty to keep ineligible voters off its rolls, & our request is grounded in that legal authority. DOJ will get this information through all legal means!" Dhillon wrote.

In a separate statement, Sherrill said the state Division of Elections has started a process to remove more than 4,500 people who were registered through the software error. The remaining registrations will be referred to county election officials for further review to ensure that any lawfully registered voters are not disenfranchised.

"As I said last week, this is what accountable government looks like," Sherrill said. "We inherited a problem.

 

"We didn't hide it. We didn't deny it. We're investigating it. And we're going to fix it, the right way.

"That approach stands in stark contrast to how MAGA Republicans have responded to this issue. From the moment I made this public and launched the investigation, Donald Trump and his followers have moved to weaponize the issue to advance their voter suppression schemes. And they are trying to target the individuals affected, who were registered through no fault of their own. I won't let them do either."

The Trump administration has alleged that the true number of noncitizens on the state's voter rolls is higher than New Jersey has disclosed. On July 16, Department of Homeland Security officials said they had found 35,152 noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, said Monday that he plans to hold a hearing on the matter, likely when Congress returns from its August recess. He said subpoenaing state records is possible.

Van Drew, along with 18 other House Republicans, on Friday sent a letter to Sherrill, giving her an Aug. 21 deadline to respond to a detailed list of questions about how the error occurred and what the state plans to do going forward.

"When the state uncovers a failure of this magnitude, it cannot simply acknowledge the problem and move on," Van Drew said in a news release. "Our elections depend on accurate voter rolls and safeguards that actually work.

"This right here is exactly why we should require ID to vote in our elections. We need answers about how this happened, why it was not caught sooner, whether more ineligible registrations remain, and what is being done right now to secure our voter rolls."

Michael Katz ✉

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.

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