Vendor denies Sherrill claim of software error in NJ voter rolls
A French identity verification company rejected New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's claims of a software glitch causing noncitizen voter registrations, instead blaming state officials for the error.
IDEMIA, the France-based firm contracted by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission to provide identity verification technology, issued a statement Thursday insisting its voter registration system operated exactly as designed and had received full approval from state authorities before implementation, according to Claire Carter writing in Washington Examiner.
The company maintains that the breakdown occurred when noncitizen data was transmitted to the Division of Elections, arguing that state officials bear ultimate responsibility for confirming voter eligibility rather than the technology vendor.
The controversy erupted after New Jersey authorities acknowledged that approximately 6,600 noncitizens were incorrectly registered to vote through the state’s automatic voter registration program between June 2023 and July 2024. State officials confirmed that roughly 400 of these individuals actually cast ballots, though they maintain no evidence suggests these registrations altered any election outcomes.
Lisa Shoemaker, IDEMIA’s senior vice president of global corporate relations, stated that all 6,600 individuals had indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘No’ to being a US Citizen.
Shoemaker emphasized that this information was accurately recorded and consistently accessible to the Motor Vehicle Commission through the database used to collect voter information and forward it to the Division of Elections. She stressed that at no time was any noncitizen ever designated as a citizen in the database.
The company revealed that the Motor Vehicle Commission requested a system modification in June 2024 to automatically mark applicants identifying as noncitizens as declining voter registration. While IDEMIA implemented this change to prevent future problematic registrations, the approximately 6,600 people already added to voter rolls before the adjustment were neither removed nor publicly disclosed until recently.
Governor Sherrill doubled down Thursday on assigning responsibility to IDEMIA and her predecessor, former Governor Phil Murphy, accusing both of failing to show accountability for the mistake.
She criticized the Motor Vehicle Commission as having been in disarray, with IDEMIA at the center of problems including excessive wait times, bureaucracy, and administrative obstacles.
The Trump administration has seized on the New Jersey case as justification for strengthening election security measures, particularly citizenship verification requirements. The Department of Justice issued a letter to New Jersey on Tuesday demanding the state provide names, addresses, and nationalities of affected individuals within five business days.
Sherrill resisted the federal demand, escalating tensions between state and federal authorities, as she claimed the Justice Department would misuse the voter roll information for political purposes.
With information from Washington Examiner
