President Donald Trump and his allies are using a New Jersey voter-registration error to revive broader claims about noncitizen voting, even as election experts say the state’s mistake does not support allegations of widespread fraud.
The controversy began after New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said about 6,600 noncitizens had been mistakenly registered to vote because of a software error connected to the state’s automatic voter-registration system. Fewer than 400 of those people cast ballots, according to the governor.
New Jersey has used automatic voter registration since 2018. Under the system, eligible residents who interact with motor vehicle offices are automatically registered unless they opt out. Between 2023 and 2024, some people reportedly indicated they were not citizens but were still added to the voter rolls because of the error.
Sherrill said the mistake was the state’s responsibility and suggested it would be unfair to prosecute individuals who were registered because of a government system failure.
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The numbers are serious enough to require investigation and correction. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections, and election systems are expected to prevent ineligible registrations. But experts say the scale of the New Jersey error is far smaller than the fraud narrative Trump is promoting.
The 6,600 registrations represent a tiny fraction of New Jersey’s more than 6.6 million registered voters. The fewer than 400 ballots cast would represent roughly 0.009% of all ballots in New Jersey’s 2024 general election, when Kamala Harris defeated Trump in the state by more than 250,000 votes.
Despite that context, Trump claimed on Truth Social that Homeland Security had identified 35,152 noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey and suggested the real number could be much higher. He also claimed they were all Democrats. Sherrill said the erroneously registered voters included Democrats, Republicans and mostly unaffiliated voters.
The Department of Homeland Security has also sent letters to New Jersey, California, Nevada and Pennsylvania claiming that as many as 278,000 noncitizens may be on voter rolls across those states. But according to reporting on the letters, DHS expressed uncertainty about the figure and did not publicly explain its full methodology.
That lack of transparency has drawn criticism from election officials and experts. Matching voter records with immigration databases is complicated and can produce false positives if names, birth dates, addresses or identification numbers are incomplete or outdated.
Election-administration experts have warned that DHS may not have had enough detailed information from public voter files to produce reliable matches. Public voter rolls typically do not include the most sensitive identifiers needed for high-confidence immigration-status checks.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said his office rejected the DHS claims on their face and had not received evidence backing them up. Sherrill also said New Jersey had asked DHS for supporting information but had not received it.
The dispute arrives as Trump is escalating his rhetoric about election integrity ahead of the midterm elections. Republicans have used the New Jersey error to support new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration, while Democrats and voting-rights advocates argue that the proposals could make it harder for eligible citizens to register.
Election experts generally agree that administrative errors can happen, but they say noncitizen voting remains extremely rare. They also note that the New Jersey case was identified by state officials, showing that election systems can detect and correct problems.
Stephen Richer, a Republican former election official in Arizona’s Maricopa County, said the New Jersey case should be taken seriously but does not prove the type of organized fraud Trump describes. Many of the people involved had reportedly indicated they were not citizens, and most did not vote even after being mistakenly registered.
That distinction matters. A state software mistake is not the same as a coordinated attempt by noncitizens to influence an election.
Still, the issue could become politically powerful. Trump and his allies are likely to continue using New Jersey’s error as evidence for tougher voter-registration rules. Democrats will likely argue that the incident is being exaggerated to undermine trust in elections before voters cast ballots.
Why It Matters
Election systems must be accurate, and any mistaken registration of ineligible voters should be fixed. But inflating a limited administrative error into a sweeping fraud claim can damage public confidence without evidence.
The New Jersey case shows both sides of the election debate: real mistakes can happen, but claims of massive noncitizen voting require proof, transparent data and careful verification.
What Comes Next
New Jersey officials are expected to continue reviewing the voter-registration error and correcting affected records. The Justice Department has requested information about people who were mistakenly registered and those who cast ballots.
DHS may face growing pressure to explain how it produced its larger figures for New Jersey and other states. If the agency does not release a clear methodology, election officials and experts are likely to keep challenging the credibility of its claims.
New Jersey officials said a software error mistakenly registered about 6,600 noncitizens, fewer than 400 of whom cast ballots.
New Jersey says it has removed roughly 6,600 noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls after officials discovered what Gov. Mikie Sherrill calls a “serious software error” in the Motor Vehicle System.
Sherrill says some people identified themselves as noncitizens and ineligible… pic.twitter.com/5qk4HqNAaP
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 22, 2026
