New Jersey blamed a software glitch last week after 6,600 noncitizens ended up on its voter rolls.
Then the company Sherrill blamed hit back with its own statement about what actually happened.
What IDEMIA's statement reveals about New Jersey's own voter rolls has Republicans saying this was never a glitch at all.
The Vendor Just Blew Up Sherrill's Glitch Story
Sherrill says the mess started under her predecessor, fellow Democrat Phil Murphy, between June 2023 and June 2024.
Her story is that a glitch in the state's Motor Vehicle Commission system registered 6,600 people to vote after they told the state, on a keypad, that they were not U.S. citizens.
Roughly 400 of them cast ballots anyway.
Sherrill blamed the vendor, IDEMIA, and announced the state is terminating its contract.
IDEMIA is not letting that stand.
The French tech contractor says the citizenship data arrived exactly as New Jersey's own system was built to handle it.
IDEMIA's statement points responsibility back at Trenton, saying its part ended once the information reached the state, and that state election officials were the ones who had to check who was actually eligible to vote.
That is not a description of a random glitch, it is a description of the state's own review process failing to catch noncitizens for a full year.
IDEMIA also disclosed that state election officials waited a full year, until June 2024, before even asking for a safeguard that would have automatically screened out noncitizens.
New Jersey knew exactly how to fix this the entire time and simply chose not to.
New Jersey Assembly Republican Leader John DiMaio said his party has been sounding the alarm for years about the state's automatic voter registration process.
State Senator Chris McGuckin went further, telling the Washington Examiner that the Murphy administration knew about the illegal registrations back in 2024 and did nothing about it.
New Jersey has now moved to end its longstanding relationship with IDEMIA, a vendor state records show has collected roughly 61 million dollars across several contracts, and Republicans like Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia say severing just one of those contracts without a real investigation looks a lot more like scapegoating than accountability.
Sherrill Stonewalls a Federal Deadline and Calls Illegal Voters Citizens
The Justice Department is not waiting around for Trenton to sort out its excuses.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who runs the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, demanded the names, birth dates, nationalities, addresses, and registration details for all 6,600 people identified.
Dhillon gave Sherrill's administration five business days to comply, saying the integrity of every legal voter's ballot depends on keeping noncitizens off the rolls.
New Jersey blew right past that deadline.
At a Trenton press conference, a reporter asked Sherrill directly whether she would comply with the federal request.
Sherrill's answer was that she is not in the habit of handing over private information belonging to the citizens of New Jersey.
That is what New Jersey's governor called 6,600 people who told the state, in writing, that they were not U.S. citizens.
Sherrill then accused the Trump administration of trying to weaponize the government against people who disagree with it, even as her own DOJ letter sits unanswered.
The standoff now feeds directly into United States v. Caldwell, the federal lawsuit already pending against New Jersey over its refusal to turn over an unredacted statewide voter roll.
Dhillon has notified the judge in that case about New Jersey's new admission.
New Jersey Is Not the Only Blue State Playing This Game
New Jersey did not invent this playbook.
The Justice Department has already taken Orange County, California's registrar of voters to court over a similar refusal, alleging violations of the Help America Vote Act.
Texas used a federal citizenship database this year to flag dozens of its own noncitizen registrations, the kind of data access New Jersey is now refusing to allow.
Sherrill and Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger were once congressional roommates, and both Democrats are now facing their own accusations of undermining election integrity, Spanberger over a redistricting plan that cost Republicans congressional seats.
The pattern is consistent: a problem surfaces, a Democrat blames a vendor or a glitch, and the state fights the federal government instead of turning over the list.
Dhillon has made clear this is not a one-and-done posture from the Trump DOJ.
She told Fox News the department's approach comes down to who is now in charge, adding simply that people are policy.
Every provable case of illegal voting, she said, will be prosecuted, including noncitizens who could face exclusion from future naturalization.
That is a sharp break from prior administrations, which Dhillon says treated noncitizen voting as a footnote unless it was massive enough to flip an election outright.
Why This One Matters More Than the Last Ten
Six thousand six hundred names on a list should not require a lawsuit to see daylight.
New Jersey has a general election coming later this year, running on the same voter registration system that just let thousands of noncitizens onto the rolls without anyone catching it for nearly two years.
Sherrill wants credit for disclosing the error while refusing the one thing that would prove she is actually fixing it, cooperation with the federal government's request for the underlying data.
Calling those 6,600 people citizens of New Jersey while blocking federal investigators from confirming who they are is not transparency, it is a word game, and New Jersey voters deserve better than a governor who plays it with their ballots.
Sources:
- Cullen Linebarger, "Gov. Mikie Sherrill Announces She'll Block Release of 6,000+ Noncitizens Illegally Registered to Vote in NJ to Trump Admin. as Software Vendor Blows Up Her 'Glitch' Excuse," The Gateway Pundit, July 28, 2026.
- "DOJ's Harmeet Dhillon Vows Prosecution for Every Illegal Vote Found," Fox News, July 2026.
- "New Jersey's Illegal Immigrant Voter Registration Scandal Fuels Accusations of Conspiracy and Cover Up," Washington Examiner, July 2026.
- "DOJ Demands Answers on New Jersey Voter Roll Scandal," The Federalist, July 22, 2026.
- "Dhillon Accuses NJ Governor of Not Protecting Law Abiding State Residents in Voter Roll Scandal," Just The News, July 2026.
- "Trump Justice Department Demands Records on 6,600 Noncitizens Registered to Vote in N.J.," New Jersey Globe, July 2026.
- "New Jersey Blamed a 'Software Error' for 6,600 Noncitizen Registrations, Then the Vendor Spoke Up," WLT Report, July 25, 2026.
