The review identified problems involving age-eligibility answers and prison reentry events, with county officials responsible for reviewing affected records. The state says neither new finding involves noncitizens.
MORRISTOWN, NJ – New Jersey has identified approximately 750 voter-registration records involving incorrect age-eligibility answers and 340 potentially improper registrations from prison reentry events, prompting additional reviews and new safeguards at the Motor Vehicle Commission, Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced Oct. 7.
The administration said everyone in the age-related group was old enough to vote, based on birth dates provided during their MVC transactions, and no underage person voted because of the error. Neither newly identified category involved noncitizens, officials said.
Sherrill publicly disclosed the earlier citizenship-related problem July 21, saying roughly 6,600 people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens had nevertheless been registered through MVC transactions between June 2023 and June 2024, during then-Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration. The latest review examined registration procedures more broadly.
The new corrections come shortly before the Oct. 13 voter-registration deadline for the Nov. 3 general election. The governor’s announcement did not provide a county-by-county breakdown showing how many affected records belong to Morris County residents.
The approximately 750 age-related records resulted from the same software problem the administration attributes to technology vendor IDEMIA. Customers answered “no” when asked whether they met the age requirement, but their information was forwarded for registration anyway. Officials said many were well above voting age and appeared to have selected the wrong button on the PIN pad.
Although their birth dates established that they met the age requirement, the administration considers registrations produced through those transactions legally invalid. It divided the records into three groups:
- Approximately 380 people had no other registrations and had not voted. Their records are being placed in deleted status.
- Approximately 320 people had voted and also had other potentially valid registrations. County election officials will review those records.
- Approximately 50 people had voted after being registered solely through the erroneous process. Their records are being placed in deleted status and referred to counties for review.
The state said affected individuals have received instructions explaining their next steps. The announcement did not identify the elections in which members of these groups voted or provide findings from the individual county reviews.
The second finding concerns approximately 340 records from MVC reentry events dating to 2016. The administration said some participants attested that they were eligible to register while still serving a sentence of incarceration for an indictable offense, a felony-level crime. Counties must examine the records individually to determine whether removal is appropriate.
The state separately identified approximately 60 people who are currently incarcerated and sent their names to counties for action through routine voter-list maintenance. The release does not clarify whether those 60 people overlap with the 340 reentry records, and it does not say how many people in the reentry group voted.
Reentry assistance begins before release. The Department of Corrections describes programs to help people obtain identification documents and provides voter-registration kits before they leave custody.
New Jersey’s current registration requirements bar registration while a person is serving a sentence of incarceration following conviction for an indictable offense. People on parole or probation can vote if they otherwise qualify. A5823, enacted as P.L. 2019, Chapter 270, restored voting rights to those groups; Murphy signed it Dec. 18, 2019, with an effective date 90 days later.
That distinction affects the county reviews: a person’s eligibility when registered and their eligibility today may differ. The administration has directed individual reviews of the reentry records rather than announcing that all 340 people remain ineligible.
MVC registration operates under A2014, enacted as P.L. 2018, Chapter 6, which Murphy signed April 17, 2018. It provides automatic registration for eligible customers unless they decline and requires an affirmation that they meet voter-eligibility requirements. The MVC implemented the change that year, replacing its previous process requiring customers to opt in.
Under that system, the MVC collects registration information and transmits it electronically to election officials. The software problem described by the Sherrill administration allowed records to proceed despite answers indicating ineligibility. The Division of Elections’ guidance says the error affected certain in-person MVC transactions and did not affect online transactions. The reentry records cover a longer period, including years before the automatic-registration law.
The earlier citizenship-related review has already led to thousands of registration changes. In an Aug. 19 update, the administration said approximately 5,100 registrations had been deleted because they resulted solely from the error and officials found no separate registration or eligibility attestation. Another 1,450 records were placed in rejected status, preventing voting pending county review of other registrations or transactions that might establish eligibility.
That update said approximately 340 people newly registered because of the citizenship-related error had voted. Another approximately 220 people affected by that error had voted but also had previous registrations or separate eligibility attestations, requiring further review. These figures concern the earlier citizenship-related finding and are separate from the age-question figures announced Oct. 7.
Sherrill acknowledged July 28 that some people in the original group could be citizens. The state’s public explanation of that error says its preliminary analysis found no evidence that the affected votes changed an election outcome. The Oct. 7 release did not provide a new election-by-election assessment.
Responsibility for the original failure remains disputed. IDEMIA said its role was to transmit customer information and that the Division of Elections was responsible for validating eligibility, according to the New Jersey Monitor’s reporting on the company’s July response. Sherrill has blamed the vendor’s software and said the MVC is transitioning to a replacement vendor. Her administration’s investigation remains open.
The new safeguards include a daily audit before registration records leave the MVC. The agency will compare information stored in its database with records prepared by the vendor, checking whether citizenship, age and registration-choice information matches customers’ recorded answers.
Records with missing or conflicting information will be held for staff review. Corrected records can be transmitted only after staff confirm that they are supported by the customer’s responses, the administration said. Problems must also be reported to MVC leadership and tracked through investigation and correction.
The MVC is expanding the complete registration questionnaire to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi and Simplified Chinese. It is adding multilingual signs and handheld translation devices supporting more than 80 languages, and revising online license and identification-card renewal pages to explain eligibility, how information will be used and the option to decline registration. Website changes will also support translation through compatible browsers.
At Department of Corrections reentry events, the MVC is adding eligibility signs and developing a PIN pad question requiring applicants to confirm that they are not currently incarcerated for an indictable offense.
Sherrill said many reforms were already complete, but the release describes the daily audit as being implemented and the incarceration question as being developed. It does not identify which measures are fully operational or provide a completion schedule for the remaining work.
Senate Republican Leader Anthony Bucco, whose district includes parts of Morris County, called for a full investigative report and legislative review after the latest announcement, the New Jersey Monitor reported. He said the public should be able to examine the analysis supporting the administration’s conclusions.
Bucco, U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the Republican National Committee and the New Jersey Republican State Committee also filed a federal lawsuit Sept. 22 seeking voter-list maintenance records from the state and officials in Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties.
Their amended complaint, filed Oct. 1, alleges incomplete disclosure under the National Voter Registration Act. It acknowledges that officials supplied some records and describes disputes over privacy restrictions, requests requiring database queries and the scope of state public-records law. The plaintiffs want a court order compelling disclosure; the complaint’s allegations are not judicial findings about individual voters.
For affected residents, a deleted registration can require a new application. The Division of Elections’ Aug. 19 instructions for the earlier MVC error distinguish between restoring a rejected record after eligibility is verified and creating a new registration for an eligible person whose old record was deleted. Residents receiving a notice should follow its instructions and contact their county registration office to confirm what action is required.
Morris County residents can check their registration status or contact the county Commissioner of Registration at 973-285-6715, located at 10 Court St., second floor, in Morristown, according to the state election directory. The county election calendar lists Oct. 13 as the registration deadline, Oct. 24 through Nov. 1 for in-person early voting and Nov. 3 as Election Day.