‘Citizens Have Lost Confidence’: NJ Lawmaker Cites Sherrill Support to Demand Voter ID Law in Response to Noncitizen Registration Debacle

A Republican lawmaker is seeking a special session to pass a voter ID proposal after New Jersey’s Democrat Gov. Mikie Sherrill supported the general policy.

Republican state Sen. Michael Testa Jr. is calling for the Legislature to reconvene and pass a bill that he co-sponsored requiring voters to present photo ID at polling places, in light of revelations that at least 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote in the Garden State.

“I think it’s necessary, if not possible,” Testa told the Daily Signal of a special session to pass the bill, noting the Legislature’s Democrat majority is not likely to support it. “The citizens of New Jersey have lost confidence in the electoral process,” he said.

Of those thousands wrongly registered to vote, the state estimates as many as 400 noncitizens actually voted, a problem that Sherrill blamed on a technology glitch at the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission that automatically registered declared noncitizens.

Sherrill told News 12 on July 29, “I don’t have a problem with voter ID.” She added, “Certainly, if that was the law passed here, I would support that.”

Testa noted the state hasn’t revealed where the 400 noncitizens voted. Several local elections have been determined by narrow margins where every vote carries greater weight.

For instance, a Cumberland County Commission race last year was decided by 132 votes. A November 2025 election for a seat on the Oakland Borough Council ended in a tie, and a state judge ordered a new special election.

New Jersey doesn’t require voters to present identification when voting. However, it does require ID to register to vote, and if someone doesn’t have ID when registering, under state law, he or she would have to present it before voting. Currently, 36 states have some form of voter ID requirement, and of those, 24 require photo ID to vote.

The New Jersey controversy over noncitizen voting comes as the SAVE America Act, a bill in Congress requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to vote in federal elections, is stalled in the Senate after passing the House multiple times.

Despite her support for voter ID, Sherrill said she opposed the federal SAVE America Act, calling it “just a tool of voter suppression and an attempt to get all of the personal identifying information of New Jerseyans into the federal government systems.”

Sherrill’s office did not respond to inquiries from the Daily Signal by publication time.

Testa noted the Motor Vehicle Commission grants driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, but also collects data on self-identified noncitizens. He said the Motor Vehicle Commission should have notified the Division of Elections of all self-identified noncitizens in the portal.

“Once sent to the Division of Elections, the names should be blocked out,” Testa said.

A spokesman for state Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat, did not respond to inquiries for this story. Scutari would ultimately decide to bring Testa’s voter ID bill forward for a vote.

The Department of Homeland Security estimated more than 35,000 noncitizens are on New Jersey’s voter rolls, significantly more than the state said were wrongly registered at the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Last week, Politico reported that state election officials and campaign consultants for both parties believe that the number of registered noncitizens is much higher than the 6,600 figure that Sherrill cited, as the state since 2018 has automatically registered self-identified citizens who get a driver’s license and who are old enough to vote. “It’s the honor system,” one county elections board administrator told Politico. The Justice Department is suing New Jersey to access the state’s voter registration information.

Sherrill’s estimate of wrongly-registered noncitizens only covered the time period of June 2023 to June 2024.

Testa said the Legislature should also have a special bipartisan committee with subpoena power to investigate the noncitizens on the voter rolls, why the problem occurred, how many voted, and where they voted.

“I’m going to give Gov. Sherrill some credit for admitting the error,” Testa said. “I’m not going to give her credit for not cooperating with the Justice Department’s request for voter registration data.”