Despite the absence of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration, witnesses showed up to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on voter registration flaws. A witness that spoke at this hearing was Jason Sena partner at Archer & Greiner, P.C.
Thank you, Chairman, Chairman Van Drew, Ranking Member Crockett, and members of the subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the apparent causes of improper voter registration of non-citizens in New Jersey. A way of background, I am a licensed attorney in New Jersey. I practice in the area of election law. I’ve been practicing for approximately 15 years and I’m a registered voter in my state. I followed this issue closely.
Everything I’m going to talk to you about today and what’s in my testimony is a matter of public record, and I’m certainly happy to answer any follow-up questions that the committee may have.
As the committee is aware, in July 2026, the state of New Jersey publicly admitted that roughly 6,600 people who indicated they were not US citizens between June 2023 and June 2024 were registered to vote pursuant to what was described as a quote serious software error in New Jersey’s motor vehicle system.
The state’s decision to publicly come forward with this information, which was known for years, seems to have been precipitated by two things. Secretary Mullen’s letter to our governor concerning the potential registration of non-citizens in New Jersey and a due diligence performed by a major political party involving public records requests which revealed the presence, as a matter of fact, of non-citizens on our voter roles.
Despite the state’s admission, publicly available information indicates that non-citizens were permitted to register to vote outside of that time frame and through other non-MVC methods, which confirms as a matter of fact that the problem is bigger than the state has admitted.
The first point that I’ll discuss is that state law requires election officials, not the MVC, to determine voter eligibility.
The state blamed the MVC software vendor here for providing for causing excuse me the alleged software error resulting in non-registration registration of non-citizens.
This attempt to blame the vendor for unlawfully registering non-citizens is based on a false premise that the MVC itself performs the registration. It does not. It transmits voter information to that that it collects two election officials who then perform the ministerial non-discretionary tasks of determining voter eligibility and once confirmed registering the applicant.
It’s clear here that at some level that verification did not occur although state law and certainly federal law requires it.
This unfortunate situation vindicates the concerns raised by opponents of the legislation that led to automatic voter registration at the MVC. In 2019, the New Jersey legislature held committee hearings on the bill that was before them at that time. During that hearing, then MVC administrator Sue Fulton answered questions of members of that committee concerning the capabilities of the system that was being proposed.
During her testimony, she assured members of the legislature that non-citizens would not be able to register to vote, although they would be able to get driver’s licenses. And the chair, the chair of that committee made similar representations on the record.
It was affirmatively represented to the members of our legislature that the Secretary of State and county election officials would be the ones to determine voter eligibility. Clearly that did not occur here. As I alluded to earlier, the problem is much broader than the state admits. It’s not to the extent that it is an MVC software error. The problem is not limited to the software error at issue here.
For example, public records provided by county election offices in the counties of Hudson and Bergen, two of the state’s most densely populated counties, confirm that non-citizens registered to vote before and after the time frame that we’re discussing here and through means other than the MVC.
This confirms that the temporal scope of the problem is greater than the state admitted and that the problem is not just limited to the MVC.
Finally, the state’s list maintenance practices here are questionable.
What we know already confirms that that’s the case. It’s clear that non-citizens non-citizens have been registered to vote in New Jersey in violation of law. The means to prevent this from occurring in the future exist.
State law requires election official to verify voter eligibility, including citizenship. Our election officials need to have the necessary tools available to them to do that.
Thank you and I’m happy to answer any commit questions that the committee may have.
Thank you, Mr. Senna. Mr. Richard, you may begin.
Thank you. Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I served as the elected Republican Maricopa County recorder from January 2021 until January 2025 where I was responsible for voter registration and early voting for the 4.6 million people in that county. I am now a legal fellow at the Ko Institute, a lecturer and fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center, and the CEO of consulting firm Republic Affairs. Let me begin by saying that I do not think that there is anything inherently wrong with requiring documented proof of citizenship to vote in the United States. Arizona, my home state, has had a documented proof of citizenship requirement for over 20 years. But as with all public policy proposals, there are trade-offs, there are costs, and there are benefits. To make these calculations, we must first have a clear understanding of the facts. And to date, all evidence suggests that non-citizen voting in American elections is a minute phenomenon. I am aware of at least 29 non-citizen voter audits performed by states and counties since the beginning of 2021.
In May of this year, Utah published its findings from a year-long audit of the state’s 2.1 million registered voters.
The state found 27 confirmed non-citizens on the voter roles. 27, that’s 0001%.
And in Michigan, the Secretary of State recently audited the approximately 725,000 registered voters in Mcome County. That audit found four apparent non-citizens, including one who had actually voted.
No thorough professional audit has found that non-citizens constitute anything even close to a tenth of a percent of the state’s voter population. Recent federal law enforcement efforts affirm the comparatively microscopic nature of non-citizen voting. According to reporting from the New York Times, Fox, and Reuters, the federal government has mobilized hundreds of highly skilled law enforcement agents to investigate election fraud, especially non-citizen voting. The results have been entirely consistent with the audits I just mentioned. According to reporting from ProPublica, between January 2025 and May 2026, the federal government charged 41 non-citizens with voting illegally or other election related crimes. Those who allege widespread non-citizen voting have little support for their position.
They often point out that in most states, documented proof of citizenship isn’t required. And while that’s true, that doesn’t mean that non-citizens are actually registering or voting. Or they point to indiscriminate analyses that use commercial data without personal identifying information, such as social security numbers or a driver’s license number. They allege a certain number of non-citizens voting, but they never show their work, and they don’t investigate individual voter files. Turning to the specific situation of New Jersey, it is the largest finding of registered non-citizens of which I am aware. But by all reports, it was the result not of attempted fraud, but of a software problem caused by imperfect human beings.
6,600 lawful residents of New Jersey checked a box saying they are not citizens, but the software instead marked them as citizens, and election officials then registered them as voters. This was a mistake and it should be fixed as with any other mistake that happens in government. But some have used this software error to make bold sweeping statements about American elections. Some have said, “See, this is why we need documented proof of citizenship.” But that wouldn’t have fixed the problem. I know this because in Arizona, we have a documented proof of citizenship requirement. And yet we had a very similar pro problem when the software tying the motor vehicle division with the state election office said certain voters had provided document to proof of citizenship when in fact they had not. And some say see this is proof of widespread non-citizen voting. But again this was a coding mistake. 6,600 people got improperly registered. 340 of those voted in at least one election. But for context, there are 6.68 million registered voters in New Jersey and 4.3 million of them voted in November 2024. Even in this scenario, this worst case scenario, non-citizens made up a fraction of a percent of voters. American elections are accessible, secure, and accurate. We should be proud. Nonetheless, we should continue to improve American elections, and we should have conversations about documented proof of citizenship. But we must be honest about the reality of non-citizens voting. Thank you.
