Bill Spadea: NJ voter registration glitch needs full audit

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill revealed on July 21, 2026, that a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission improperly registered roughly 6,600 non-U.S. citizens to vote.

The "glitch" struck between June 2023 and June 2024, registering applicants who had answered “no” to the citizenship question during driver’s license or state ID applications.

The governor stressed that, since fewer than 400 reportedly cast ballots, no election was swayed, as it's only a tiny fraction of the total votes cast.

Sherrill went on to blame a vendor glitch from the Phil Murphy era, ordered removals, ditched the vendor, and called for an independent probe.

Photo by Samuel Errico Piccarini on Unsplash

Illegals With Licenses - 'GOPers' Provided Democrats with Support.

The first obvious point is that these illegal votes never get cast without illegals being granted driver's licenses, a move actually supported by the Republican nominee for governor in 2021 and 2025.

So, the same Republicans out yelling "I told you there was fraud" are the same ones who support the guy who's been the standard bearer of the NJGOP for the past six years.

Some Republicans actively work against Trump's Immigration Policy

The second point is that there are members of the Republican leadership in the Legislature who want you to think that they will champion the removal of illegals from the voter rolls and claim to support the DHS effort to deport criminal aliens.

Some of those same Republicans are embroiled in a legal attack on President Trump to stop DHS from detaining criminal aliens in Roxbury, Morris County.

The town attorney in Roxbury is also the minority leader for the Republicans in the State Senate — embarrassing, hypocritical and not what Republican voters supported.

So, they'll ask you to vote for them and donate as Trump-Republicans, but when it comes down to action, they are willing to betray the president and the mission of deporting dangerous people, some of whom we can now confirm voted in our elections.

This is not just a recent problem

The governor would expect you to buy into this being an isolated problem involving a glitch, but the facts show otherwise.

Back in May of this year, the U.S. Attorney's Office brought charges against illegals voting in elections back in 2020.

That's right, three years before the glitch.

Fox News reported on the RNC's effort to expose illegals on the voter rolls, and found documentation showing that some of the illegal votes in New Jersey go back to 2000.

Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

Hard Questions on motives and timing for the governor

Sherrill’s sudden transparency is suspiciously convenient.

With Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin actively investigating noncitizen registrations across multiple states, including New Jersey, and pushing aggressive federal scrutiny ahead of midterms, her announcement lands at a moment when it's a convenient distraction.

She's talking about a glitch involving 6,600 voters, but the DHS is reporting they found more than 35,000 so far.

This proactive accountability is clearly a calculated damage-control narrative to frame it as an isolated “glitch” and deflect from the real problem.

That problem is beyond illegals getting licenses; it's about the hundreds of thousands of illegals protected by our "sanctuary state status."

This latest revelation is simply a distraction from Mullin’s wider probe into potentially hundreds of thousands of improper registrations nationwide, while downplaying how New Jersey's own policies enabled the mess.

True election integrity demands full audits, not just vendor swaps and press releases timed for political cover.

The Solution

The incident reinforces urgent calls for proof-of-citizenship requirements, stricter list maintenance, and decoupling voter registration from license processes.

New Jersey voters deserve ironclad systems, not excuses. Anything less continues to erode trust in every election.

Passing the Save America Act in Congress is part of the solution.

We need to have the federal government require a re-registration for all voters in federal elections. Prove you are a citizen, get a voter ID card and then show the card with photo ID to vote.

In person, one day.

Bring back absentee voting for circumstances such as health, deployment, and travel that would prevent you from voting in person.

New Jersey should take the lead and require re-registration for all local and state elections as well. New Jersey voter card with picture ID.

We cannot solve this problem by tweaking around the edges.

This is the time to "cut the Gordian knot" and fix this problem once and for all.