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New Jersey's non-citizen voting scandal has taken a major twist after the software company that Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) tried to blame is now firing back, pointing the finger squarely at state election officials who were supposed to verify who actually gets to vote. What began as Sherrill’s public admission that more than 6,600 non-citizens ended up on the voter rolls—with nearly 400 casting ballots between June 2023 and June 2024—has quickly devolved into classic bureaucratic finger-pointing. And now the controversy is rippling into California, where the same vendor at the center of New Jersey’s “glitch” has long handled DMV operations. Sherrill, who took office this year, blamed the error on the previous administration of Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and said a preliminary review showed that IDEMIA, the software company that provides driver’s license and voter registration systems in the Garden State, was responsible. READ MORE: That Thing Democrats Insist 'Never Happens' Just Happened 6,600 Times in New Jersey Harmeet Strikes Immediately: DOJ Probe Launched After NJ Admits Allowing 400 Non-Citizens to Vote “This entire situation is unacceptable,” Sherrill said. “It’s unacceptable that the vendor released software with such a glaring error, it’s unacceptable that the MVC (Motor Vehicle Commission) took a year to get this issue fixed, and it’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability, or took action when it happened years ago.” The company, however, insisted its role was strictly limited to transmitting information from the MVC to the state’s Division of Elections. "IDEMIA’s role is to transmit information through the motor vehicle system. The voter registration information is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote,” the company said in a statement. “Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections."
Far from a simple “software error” on their end, the firm essentially argued that state officials dropped the ball by failing to properly check the citizenship status of thousands of applicants who had already identified themselves as non-citizens. Still, Sherrill says the state will be phasing out use of the IDEMIA software. The controversy, though, is now seeping into California, where the same vendor has a major contract with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. California announced a partnership with IDEMIA in 2022 to modernize its DMV operations, including issuing all driver’s licenses and identification cards starting in late 2025. The contract was for 12 years, while a press release from the company indicated they had been providing physical ID cards and technology to the Golden State for more than 64 years. IDEMIA CEO Rob Gardner announced at the time that the partnership was "not just about aesthetics" but "about raising the bar on security and trust." While no identical software error has been confirmed, the New Jersey scandal has prompted fresh questions about whether California’s system could have similar vulnerabilities in its automatic voter registration process—especially as the Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security have flagged tens of thousands of potential non-citizen registrations in California and demanded greater scrutiny of its voter rolls. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said states would have to follow provisions of the SAVE America Act to receive as much as $1 billion in federal funds going forward. “We are going to make our security enhancements mandatory, meaning that if these states want a grant and they want to be reimbursed to work or to run federal elections, they’re going to have to implement security issues,” Mullin said.
While the controversy now swirls in California, Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber insisted following President Trump's primetime election integrity speech on Thursday that "non-citizen voting remains exceedingly rare." "In California, election officials work every day to maintain accurate voter rolls and ensure that only eligible voters are registered," Weber declared. Sherrill, meanwhile, also downplayed the severity of the scandal and accused the Trump administration of trying to "weaponize elections for political gain." White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson fired back, suggesting Democrats are, and have been, lying to the public. “Democrats and their media allies have repeatedly said it is impossible for noncitizens to register to vote, let alone cast a ballot. Time and again, they have been proven wrong," she asserted. "As President Trump has said, there is nothing more important than the integrity of our elections. And this latest incident underscores the absolute necessity of the SAVE America Act.” Officials in New Jersey and California can deflect all they want, but this story underscores what Republicans have warned about for years. Without real verification and accountability, non-citizen voting remains a tangible vulnerability. The American people deserve a real fix. The SAVE America Act would be a good place to start. |
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