TRENTON, N.J. – Calls for criminal investigations into New Jersey’s noncitizen voter registration scandal continued to grow Wednesday, with Republican lawmakers arguing that the issue extends far beyond an apparent software failure and now raises questions about whether public officials concealed the problem from voters and federal investigators.
The latest demands come after Gov. Mikie Sherrill disclosed that roughly 6,600 people who identified themselves as non-U.S. citizens while applying for Motor Vehicle Commission licenses or identification cards were nevertheless registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024. According to the administration, fewer than 400 of those individuals ultimately cast ballots.
Assemblyman Greg McGuckin (R-Ocean) accused officials in the former Murphy administration of intentionally hiding the problem after learning of it last year.
“According to Gov. Sherrill, the Murphy administration knew about these illegally registered voters in 2024 and did nothing,” McGuckin said. “New Jersey deserves to know which public officials conspired to hide this and why Sherrill isn’t naming names.”
McGuckin, a practicing attorney, also questioned why the administration disclosed the error only after the U.S. Department of Justice sued Secretary of State Dale Caldwell over access to New Jersey’s voter registration records.
“Now we know why the Sherrill administration is trying so hard to hide New Jersey’s voter rolls from the Department of Justice,” McGuckin said. “It is no coincidence that the Governor came clean only after the DOJ subpoenaed New Jersey voter records.”
The Ocean County legislator called for the immediate suspension of automatic voter registration at MVC offices and argued that any effort to conceal the registrations should be prosecuted.
His comments follow a similar push from Assemblyman Al Barlas (R-Passaic), who urged Attorney General Jennifer Davenport to ensure prosecutorial decisions remain independent after Gov. Sherrill publicly suggested it would be hypocritical for the state to charge individuals who voted after being mistakenly registered. In a letter dated July 22, Barlas cited the Attorney General’s statutory role as the state’s chief law enforcement officer and urged that any charging decisions be made through the normal criminal justice process rather than influenced by public statements from the governor.
20260722152052675The calls have also spread beyond New Jersey.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced a formal DOJ probe on Tuesday in a letter to Governor Sherrill.
U.S. Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the circumstances surrounding the erroneous registrations, arguing that an independent investigation is necessary to determine whether laws were broken and whether government officials knowingly concealed the problem:
We cannot let the voter fraud in New Jersey go unanswered.
I just sent a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche urging him to appoint an independent special prosecutor to look into this travesty.
Anyone failing to uphold our election laws must be prosecuted, regardless… pic.twitter.com/lU4DoWHLnD
— Congressman John Rose (@RepJohnRose) July 21, 2026
