⚠️ IDEMIA says New Jersey’s voter registration problem was not caused by a software error.
➡️ The company says all 6,600 noncitizens answered “Yes” when asked if they wanted to register to vote.
❎ Gov. Mikie Sherrill continues to blame the vendor while Republicans say the issue predates the MVC system.
TRENTON — The company at the center of New Jersey’s voter registration controversy is pushing back against Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s explanation of how 6,600 noncitizens ended up on the state’s voter rolls, setting up a public dispute over whether the problem was a software failure or the result of how the state handled the information it received.
While Sherrill has repeatedly described the issue as a “serious software error” caused by MVC vendor IDEMIA, the company says its software functioned exactly as designed and that state officials had access to information identifying each applicant as a noncitizen.
The scandal erupted as President Trump and his congressional allies push for passage of the SAVE Act, a voter ID law tied to the president’s claim that he was cheated out of the 2020 election. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security have targeted New Jersey’s voter rolls for review, which the state is fighting in court in order to protect non-public voter information.
On Tuesday, days after Homeland Security claimed that as many as 35,152 noncitizens could be registered to vote in New Jersey, Sherrill said a “serious software error” allowed 6,600 noncitizens onto the voter rolls from June 2023 through June 2024. They had answered “No” when asked on a keypad whether they were a citizen while applying for a driver’s license or identification through the Motor Vehicle Commission, according to the Democratic governor.
Sherrill blamed IDEMIA, a French software vendor that supplied the software, and her predecessor’s administration for failing to take accountability.
(IDEMIA North America via Facebook)(IDEMIA North America via Facebook)
IDEMIA says the software worked as designed
In response to the governor’s public remarks, the tech company said there was a glaring omission in the governor’s announcement. The problem wasn’t a software error, as Sherrill described it on Tuesday, according to Lisa Shoemaker, IDEMIA’s senior vice president of global corporate relations.
“All 6,600 individuals indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘No’ to being a U.S. citizen,” Shoemaker said in a statement to POLITICO.
As of Friday, Sherrill had not disclosed that individuals who answered “No” to being a U.S. citizen had also been asked if they wanted to register to vote.
And Sherrill had not disclosed that the noncitizens had answered “Yes” to wanting to register to vote; she said the noncitizens were registered to vote through no fault of their own.
According to IDEMIA, the software was approved by the state before it was implemented. Shoemaker told Politico that the MVC sent noncitizens’ data to the state Division of Elections.
“This information was recorded correctly and always available to the MVC via the database that MVC utilized to gather voter information and transmit to the Division of Elections. At no point was a noncitizen ever marked as a citizen in the database,” Shoemaker said.
IDEMIA claims that it wasn’t until June 2024 that the New Jersey MVC requested that noncitizens be automatically marked as declining to register to vote, Politico reported.
Governor Mikie Sherrill, Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell and MVC Acting Chair & Chief Administrator Rosalie Johnson hold a press conference in the media room of the statehouse in Trenton on July 21, 2026. (Office of Governor/Tim Larsen)Governor Mikie Sherrill, Lt. Governor Dale Caldwell and MVC Acting Chair & Chief Administrator Rosalie Johnson hold a press conference in the media room of the statehouse in Trenton on July 21, 2026. (Office of Governor/Tim Larsen)
Sherrill stands by criticism as Republicans raise broader concerns
When contacted by email, the governor’s office did not comment on whether IDEMIA’s characterization was accurate. There was also no explanation as to whether Sherrill intentionally omitted that the noncitizens had been asked if they wanted to register to vote.
A spokesperson referred New Jersey 101.5 to comments Sherrill made at an unrelated press conference in Newark on Thursday. She maintained that the software vendor was to blame for the problem. The governor said IDEMIA was also responsible for other issues at the MVC, including long wait times and a lack of REAL ID appointments.
“And now to suggest somehow that the fact that they had a huge software error like this for a year that they did not catch is somehow not something they were responsible for. I mean, this is why we’re getting rid of them,” Sherrill said. State officials have said the MVC will replace IDEMIA with a new vendor, Telos.
A vendor displays a touchscreen voting machine at an election technology trade show in Trenton. (File, Michael Symons/Townsquare Media NJ)A vendor displays a touchscreen voting machine at an election technology trade show in Trenton. (File, Michael Symons/Townsquare Media NJ)
State Republicans, however, say the issue was not exclusive to the MVC software provided by IDEMIA; noncitizens are registering to vote even with paper forms.
“It’s not just motor vehicle. The problem is the verification and the honor system rather than an actual process. You get a voter registration form and you put the last four digits of a Social Security number. What is the vetting process?” said Christine Hanlon, Republican State Committee chairwoman.
READ MORE: NJ GOP says voter registration issue predates 2023 glitch
According to Hanlon, the GOP Election Task Force found hundreds of examples of noncitizen registrations dating back to at least 2019, before the June 2023 error.
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How your town in NJ voted for governor in 2025
How every municipality voted in the 2025 gubernatorial election between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill. Municipalities are listed in alphabetical order by county. Results are from the state Division of Elections as of December 2025.
Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5
NJ voter turnout by county in the 2025 gubernatorial election
We list the state’s 21 counties by voter turnout — the percentage of registered voters who cast a ballot in the 2025 election. Each county entry includes the turnout for each municipality listed in alphabetical order, and the candidate who won the most votes in each town and county. We also list the percentage of ballots that were mail-in.
Gallery Credit: New Jersey 101.5
