Governor Sherrill confirms roughly 6,600 non-US citizens falsely registered in New Jersey

Software error as the cause

The registrations occurred during the tenure of Sherrill's Democratic predecessor Phil Murphy, who held office from 2018 until early 2025. Sherrill stressed that her administration had uncovered the error after evaluating relevant leads.

Sherrill said verbatim: "If we identify a problem, we don't hide it, we don't deny it, and we don't invent conspiracies." She also announced: "We investigate it, we fix it, and we inform the public."

At the same time, she sharply criticized those responsible in the previous administration: "I am appalled by the irresponsible failures that enabled this, and by the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time," Sherrill said.

Contradiction of Trump's statements

The case attracted nationwide attention last week after US President Donald Trump claimed in a televised address that more than 250,000 non-US citizens had been registered as voters in four states, including New Jersey. The figures now presented by Sherrill for New Jersey, at roughly 6,600, are significantly lower than Trump's figure.

There has so far been no official confirmation of the higher overall numbers cited by the president. The government in Washington initially declined to comment on Sherrill's account.

In the United States, inclusion on the voter rolls is typically handled through state motor vehicle agencies. Under federal law, applicants who indicate they are not US citizens should not be placed on the lists. The software error now acknowledged appears to have bypassed this check.

Reactions and political consequences

Election law experts see the incident as a familiar problem: interfaces between government agencies that were not originally designed for election administration carry risks of erroneous data entries, they say. Several states have seen similar cases in recent years in which foreign nationals were accidentally listed as eligible to vote.

The opposition in New Jersey accused the previous government of having ignored the issue for years. Republican lawmakers in the state demanded an independent review of the proceedings and also pointed to the significantly higher figure cited by Trump.

Sherrill assured that the cleanup of the voter rolls would be completed within a few weeks. She left open whether disciplinary or legal action would be taken against those responsible in the former administration.

The disclosure comes at a time of heightened tensions over the integrity of the US election system. In several states, lawsuits and legislative initiatives aimed at reviewing voter lists are currently underway, particularly with an eye to the November congressional elections.