Driver licenses for undocumented led to illegal voting

🚗 A software error registered about 6,600 non-citizens to vote after they applied for New Jersey driver's licenses, despite identifying themselves as non-citizens.
🗳️ Gov. Mikie Sherrill has ordered the registrations removed, launched an investigation and is replacing the MVC software vendor.
⚖️ The controversy traces back to New Jersey's 2021 policy allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain standard driver's licenses.

How NJ driver's license law set the stage for voter registration mistake

Gov. Mikie Sherrill is calling it an unacceptable software error.

Republicans are calling it proof New Jersey's election safeguards failed.

Whatever side of the political debate you fall on, one fact is beyond dispute: none of this would have happened had New Jersey not expanded driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants in 2021.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that approximately 6,600 people who identified themselves as not being U.S. citizens were mistakenly registered to vote in New Jersey. (Mikie Sherrill via Facebook)

New Jersey software glitch registered non-citizens to vote

On Tuesday, Sherrill disclosed that approximately 6,600 people who identified themselves as not being U.S. citizens were mistakenly registered to vote through the Motor Vehicle Commission between June 2023 and June 2024. According to the governor, those applicants answered "no" when asked whether they were U.S. citizens while applying for driver's licenses or state identification cards, but a software error registered them anyway.

Sherrill said fewer than 400 of those improperly registered ultimately cast ballots. She has ordered the names removed from the voter rolls, directed an investigation into what happened and begun replacing the MVC software vendor responsible for the system. She also said there is no evidence the erroneous registrations changed the outcome of any election.

Murphy's driver's license law created two classes of licenses

The controversy traces back to legislation signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in December 2019 that took effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

The law allowed undocumented immigrants who could prove their identity and New Jersey residency to obtain a standard driver's license. The legislation also created two separate classes of licenses: the standard license for driving purposes and a REAL ID-compliant license that can be used for certain federal identification purposes.

State officials made clear when the law took effect that a standard driver's license issued under the program could not be used to vote or serve as proof of voting eligibility. Applicants were still required to meet all voter registration requirements, including U.S. citizenship.

Automatic voter registration became the point of failure

The software error occurred during New Jersey's automatic voter registration process at the MVC.

According to Sherrill, affected applicants accurately disclosed they were not U.S. citizens. The problem was not that applicants falsely claimed citizenship; it was that the computer system failed to honor their answers and processed voter registrations anyway.

That distinction is important.

The immediate cause of the mistaken registrations was the software malfunction. But without the 2021 expansion allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain standard driver's licenses and interact with the MVC licensing system, those applicants would never have entered the automatic voter registration process in the first place.

Now the state faces questions not only about how the software failed, but why the safeguards designed to prevent ineligible voter registrations did not catch the problem sooner. Sherrill has promised a full accounting once the investigation is complete.

One of the easiest ways to fix the glitch would be to suspend the granting to driving privileges to undocumented immigrants, but Sherrill has given no indication she is willing to consider that option.

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