Breaking
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill was quick to point out the problem didn’t originate on her watch. (Jim Watson – AFP / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders July 21, 2026 at 11:19am
Thousands of non-American citizens were allowed to register to vote thanks to a “software error” in the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles, the state’s governor announced Tuesday.
In a lengthy post on the social media platform X, Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill went to great pains to emphasize that the error took place before she took office.
And she went even further, attacking President Donald Trump in the process.
Last week I learned that a serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, almost three years prior to my taking office. These individuals…
— Governor Mikie Sherrill (@GovSherrillNJ) July 21, 2026
“Last week I learned that a serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System led to the registration of roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens between June 2023 and June 2024, almost three years prior to my taking office,” Sherrill wrote at the beginning of the post.
She wrote that of those 6,600 registrants, only about 400 actually voted.
“They were registered as Democrats, Republicans and Unaffiliated voters and were scattered across the state,” she wrote.
She emphasized her concern, declaring she was “appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency shown by those in charge at the time.”
And then she noted, for the third time, that “This failure didn’t occur under my watch, but accountability starts now.”
Election integrity is a major concern of American conservatives and one of Trump’s major talking points. In fact, he devoted much of a prime-time speech just last week to the topic. And he pumped the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration.
So, even while acknowledging a serious breach in the systems of her own state, Sherrill — the Democratic governor of a Democrat-dominated state government — used her post to go on the attack.
“As the Trump Administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections,” Sherrill wrote.
“Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity. For more than ten years, he has worked to undermine Americans’ faith in our elections by spreading lies about legitimate election results, attempting to overturn a free and fair election, encouraging an attack on our Capitol when he couldn’t accept the will of the voters, and defunding election security at the federal level.”
Judging by the vast majority of the responses to Sherrill’s post on social media, her take was not taken well:
Madam Governor,
Rather than fixing a problem with NJ voter rolls only after it was discovered, perhaps you should be more proactive. For example you could provide the rolls to the DOJ for review, or you could request the NJ congressional delegation support the SAVE Act.— J. H. Sammis (@jhsammis) July 21, 2026
Funny, because I was assured by the Left/media that such a thing such things don’t happen.
I’m sure it was a “software” issue.
It’s interesting how every time there are “software” issues it always seems to benefit the Left.— Leftism (@LeftismForU) July 21, 2026
So more illegals registered to vote. We keep seeing the thing that “never happens” keep happening, again and again. Enough. Pass voter ID laws. Allow a full federal audit of voter rolls and end mail in voting.
— Entropy Generator (@ENTROPYGNRTR) July 21, 2026
Sherrill also conducted a news conference Tuesday to address the issue.
“I want to underscore how seriously I take this matter,” she said, according to The New York Times.
“I believe the integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy.”
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Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn’t need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American
