New Jersey’s Dem Governor Accidentally Proves Why Congress Must Pass the SAVE America Act

One of the most frustrating things about being a Democrat must be that reality keeps getting in the way of liberal talking points.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill is learning that lesson firsthand this week after it was revealed that a “software glitch” in the Garden State “accidentally” registered 6,600 non-citizens to vote. Even worse, as many as 400 allegedly cast ballots from 2023 to 2024.

For something that “rarely happens” according to Democrats, non-citizen voting sure seems to have become a strikingly common occurrence in recent years – and that’s just the instances that we know of.

In a lengthy statement, Sherrill explained that “individuals answered ‘no’ when asked on a keypad whether they were a U.S. citizen when applying for driver’s licenses and identification cards, but through no fault of their own, the system registered them anyway.” She then goes on (for some unexplained reason) to attack President Trump as having “zero credibility on the issue of election integrity” – even though this story appears to prove Trump exactly correct about the threat of non-citizen voting and unreliable election infrastructure.

But Sherrill’s statement leaves a few glaring questions unanswered. First, if these non-citizens were inadvertently registered, why did they then cast ballots? Didn’t they know that it was illegal for them to vote? How many were illegal aliens? Is Sherrill’s administration planning to prosecute any of them?

For that matter, why does New Jersey hand out driver’s licenses to illegal aliens if this is a live threat? In addition to posing a hazard to drivers on the road, it appears the licensing process in the state has resulted in non-citizens being registered to vote even if they did not intentionally set out to commit voter fraud.

But don’t worry, Sherrill assures us, there is “no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed” because of this error. The governor should understand that even one illegal vote cancels out the vote of an American citizen, effectively disenfranchising a legal voter.

In response to this massive scandal, Sherrill attempts to shift blame to the “previous administration” (also a Democrat) and claims that she believes “the integrity of our elections is fundamental to our democracy.”

But that statement is immediately belied by the fact that Sherrill’s government has rejected requests from the Department of Justice to review voter records – including driver’s license data – to address exactly these sorts of errors. In February, DOJ sued New Jersey for failing to provide its full voter registration lists to cross-reference against known illegal aliens and non-citizens. The agency has indicated that it will now renew that effort in addition to launching a full investigation into this latest incident.

While Sherrill and other New Jersey officials cited “privacy concerns” as their reason for refusing to hand over the state’s voter lists, there is now real evidence that the state had something far more scandalous to hide. It is entirely possible that this disclosure is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what’s actually going on in New Jersey’s election system.

Nonetheless, in this case it appears – at least so far – that the registration of non-citizens was a legitimate error rather than a malicious attempt at election fraud, even if it had similarly dire repercussions for the sanctity of the ballot box. But that is not the story with various other fraud scandals and election vulnerabilities that the Trump administration has uncovered since returning to power.

Just last week, President Trump delivered a major primetime address unveiling shocking new election integrity disclosures, including that China had illicitly acquired some 220 million U.S. voter files, and that hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are still active on voter rolls. In January 2025, 19 foreign individuals were indicted for illegally voting in the 2016 election. This past January, two men – ironically also from New Jersey – were charged with illegally voting in a federal election. A few weeks later, three illegal aliens were convicted of voting in a federal election in Florida. In March, ICE arrested an illegal alien who had voted in seven federal elections since 2008. Thousands of non-citizens were discovered on voter rolls in California. Texas has flagged additional thousands of “potential non-citizens” on its voter rolls. The list goes on.

The question now is no longer if voter fraud is a serious concern or if the country’s voter rolls are woefully inaccurate, but just how widespread the problem is. Seemingly each new disclosure only expands the scope of the crisis.

The one silver lining is that we already have the solution to the problem – the SAVE America Act. This bill would clean up the voter rolls, require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, implement nationwide Voter ID, and rein in horrifically insecure mail-in ballot practices throughout the country. The only thing missing is the political will in the U.S. Senate – despite this body being controlled by Republicans – to get the legislation across the finish line.

However, Republicans may have hit on a new strategy. They are now attempting to pass some of the most important provisions of the SAVE America Act through the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate instead of the usual 60-vote threshold. The details coming out of New Jersey should be all the motivation needed to get this legislation across the finish line as quickly as possible.

Shane Harris is the Editor-in-Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.