🗳️ Republicans raised concerns in 2019 about noncitizens potentially being registered to vote through the MVC.

⚠️ Then-MVC chief Sue Fulton testified that the Secretary of State was responsible for verifying voter eligibility.

🔎 The testimony is getting new scrutiny after about 6,600 records were improperly transmitted for voter registration.

New Jersey lawmakers were asking questions about safeguards designed to keep noncitizens off the voter rolls years before the state discovered thousands of potentially improper registrations.

The answers they received in 2019 are now getting a second look.

Republicans questioned voter registration safeguards in 2019

During a December 2019 Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing, Republican Assemblyman Erik Peterson questioned then-Motor Vehicle Commission chief administrator Sue Fulton about what would prevent an ineligible person from being registered to vote through the MVC.

Lawmakers were considering legislation allowing people who could not prove lawful presence in the United States to obtain New Jersey driver’s licenses.

Peterson specifically wanted to know what safeguards existed to prevent someone who wasn’t eligible to vote from being registered.

Fulton initially testified that the MVC’s automatic voter registration process included “a verification of eligibility.”

But under further questioning, Fulton explained applicants essentially verified their own eligibility by attesting, under penalty of perjury, that they met the requirements to vote.

“The individual verifies under penalty of perjury,” Fulton testified, according to the New Jersey Globe.

When Peterson pressed further about whether MVC employees independently checked an applicant’s eligibility, Fulton said they did not.

“The Secretary of State verifies voters’ eligibility,” Fulton testified. “That’s how we do voter registration in the state of New Jersey.”

Old testimony takes on new significance

Those comments take on new significance amid the widening controversy over New Jersey’s voter rolls.

State officials have identified approximately 6,600 records improperly transmitted to the voter registration system between June 2023 and June 2024, even though the individuals had indicated during an MVC transaction that they were not U.S. citizens.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill admits about 340 later voted.

Sherrill has blamed MVC technology contractor IDEMIA, saying the records should never have been transmitted to election officials.

IDEMIA disputes that characterization and says its system accurately recorded the applicants’ answers and made that information available to the state.

GOP calls for investigation into New Jersey voter rolls

Peterson is now calling for a bipartisan investigation into what safeguards existed and what officials in the Murphy and Sherrill administrations knew about problems involving voter registration.

“There needs to be an immediate bipartisan investigation,” Peterson said.

There is no publicly established evidence that the registration problem was intentional, and Peterson has not produced evidence supporting his broader allegation that hundreds of thousands of noncitizens may have registered.

As the Sherrill administration continues to deal with the fallout from the scandal the governor refuses to share detailed information with federal officials.

Sherrill has also set aside $20 million in a legal defense fund in the event those that illegally voted are charged by the Justice Department.

Democrats in the legislature have largely been silent and have shown no inclination to hold hearings on the integrity of New Jersey’s voter rolls.

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