House Republicans have subpoenaed New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration for records on how roughly 6,600 noncitizens ended up registered to vote in the state, according to POLITICO and the New Jersey Globe. The move comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the New Jersey Globe reported.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) signed the subpoena, which gives Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu until Nov. 16 to turn over the records, the New Jersey Globe reported. House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), Elections Subcommittee Chair Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), who chairs the Judiciary oversight subcommittee, joined Jordan in the effort, according to the Globe.
House Republicans subpoena New Jersey for noncitizen voter records https://t.co/rznDMh5Gdd
— POLITICO (@politico) October 21, 2026
Twelve documents in three months
The Republican chairmen say the state has stonewalled them. According to POLITICO, the committees said Sherrill’s administration produced only 12 documents in roughly three months of requests about the Motor Vehicle Commission error that let noncitizens onto the rolls. The committees first asked for records in early August, the New Jersey Globe reported, and say none of the documents produced so far explain how the error was discovered or why the registrations stayed on the rolls until 2026.
The Washington Examiner described the subpoena as an escalation of the committees’ investigation into what it called New Jersey’s noncitizen voter registration scandal.
How the glitch worked
From June 2023 through June 2024, a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission registered people to vote even though they answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens, according to the New Jersey Globe. The Globe reported that the glitch was fixed in June 2024, but the registrations remained on the voter rolls until Sherrill’s administration disclosed the problem in July 2026.
State officials have since deleted about 5,100 registrations and flagged roughly 1,450 more for county review, the New Jersey Globe reported. The Globe also reported that about 340 people registered through the glitch cast ballots.
What Republicans want
The subpoena covers eight areas, according to the New Jersey Globe, ranging from the software failure itself to how New Jersey checks citizenship and removes ineligible voters. The Globe reported that Republicans are seeking records on the state’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1960, along with communications with the company that supplies the Motor Vehicle Commission’s voter registration software. The New Jersey Monitor also reported that the subpoena seeks the state’s communications with its technology vendor.
Sherrill pushes back
Sherrill, who inherited the problem from former Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration, has accused Republicans of exploiting the issue for political gain and says her team acted quickly to fix it, according to the New Jersey Globe. The Globe reported that she appointed former Republican U.S. Sen. and New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa to lead an independent review.
“My Administration has continued to move aggressively to fix the error at the Motor Vehicle Commission under the previous administration, to correct our voter rolls, and to protect the voting rights of eligible New Jerseyans,” Sherrill said in an August statement quoted by the New Jersey Globe.
Why it matters
The fight lands as noncitizen voting has become a central election-integrity issue heading into the midterms. For voters who want confidence that only citizens are casting ballots, the key questions are the ones the committees are asking: how a “no” answer on citizenship turned into a voter registration for a full year, and why it took two more years for the public to find out. The documents are due Nov. 16, after Election Day.
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- Original post: POLITICO (@politico) on X, Oct 21, 2026
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