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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is demanding that New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) fork over key data about the 6,600 non-citizens who were erroneously registered to vote, including the people’s names.
On Tuesday, Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) blamed a “serious software error” in the state’s Motor Vehicle System involving French tech company IDEMIA for the mishap that led to roughly 400 noncitizens voting.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who helms the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, soon thereafter blasted out a missive outlining her demands for the investigation, including the nationalities, registration dates, and other key information for the 6,600 people.
“Ensuring that U.S. citizens’ votes are not illegally diluted by noncitizens’ votes is of paramount importance,” Dhillon wrote in a letter to Sherrill.
Dhillon gave the state a five-day deadline to turn over that information. Noncitizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.
The DOJ also cited the debacle in its ongoing lawsuit against the Garden State seeking access to its voter roll data.
“The Trump administration has a long history of weaponizing the Justice Department for political purposes and attempting to overturn election results,” Sean Higgins, a spokesperson for Sherrill, told The Post.
“Governor Sherrill has been clear that she will use all the legal tools available to her to protect New Jerseyans’ personal information.”
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) also penned a missive Wednesday demanding the heads of the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget conduct a full review of IDEMIA’s federal contracts.
IDEMIA runs systems such as TSA PreCheck and driver’s license programs in most states.
Sherrill revealed that the state has hired an outside group, CSG, to investigate the matter, which will ostensibly look into failures on the state side as well.
“These are some of the things they’ve quickly gotten together so that we had an understanding of the scope here and what we were dealing with,” she explained at a press conference.
GOP critics, including President Trump, have cited the fiasco in New Jersey as a case in point for why more robust safeguards are needed to ensure election integrity.
Trump had spent months crusading for passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote, among other measures.
Just last week, Trump had suggested in his primetime address to the nation that the Garden State had nearly 35,152 people wrongly put on its voter rolls — a figure Sherrill said is unproven.
The debacle took place under former Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) administration, long before Sherrill became governor.
IDEMIA seemingly put the onus on the state for failing to verify the voter data after Sherrill threw the vendor under the bus Tuesday.
“IDEMIA’s role is to transmit information through the motor vehicle system,” the company said in a statement. “The voter registration information is transmitted to the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Elections, which is ultimately responsible for verifying eligibility to vote.”
“Information submitted by IDEMIA must still be validated and adjudicated by the Division of Elections.”
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