House Republicans Subpoena New Jersey For Noncitizen Voter Records

House Republicans have subpoenaed New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration for records on the state’s noncitizen voter snafu, making good on a threat they leveled when the accidental registration of thousands of noncitizens was first revealed in July.

The Republican leaders of the House Judiciary and Administration Committees said that after months of requests, Sherrill’s administration has only produced 12 documents related to the Motor Vehicle Commission error that allowed thousands of noncitizens onto the state’s voter rolls before she was elected.

“The Department [of State]’s failure to produce all responsive documents has impeded the Committees’ ability to conduct oversight and consider legislative reforms,” House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) and Reps. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) wrote in a letter to acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu.

The subpoena gives Emehelu — who took over for former Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell following his Sept. 25 resignation — until Nov. 16 to comply with the extensive records demands Republicans have made.

Sherrill responded that since the error was uncovered, her administration has gone “above and beyond” to reform the state’s election administration processes and provide voters with as much information as possible.

“Instead of actually doing anything to make our elections safer or addressing issues Americans care about, like skyrocketing prices, Washington Republicans are choosing to play political games just thirteen days before the midterm elections,” Sherrill said in a statement.

On July 21, Sherrill announced that from June 2023 until June 2024, several years before she took office, 6,600 people who marked themselves as noncitizens at the MVC were registered to vote; around 400 of those individuals later cast ballots. Sherrill has released steady updates since then on her administration’s progress in purging the rolls of erroneous registrations, and her administration commissioned an independent probe that remains underway.

Republicans, however, quickly demanded more information, sending several letters to Sherrill, Caldwell and IDEMIA — the vendor that Sherrill blamed for the error — asking for documents on how the error came about and which voters were affected.

Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, said a few days after the error was revealed that he and his fellow Republicans were “absolutely exploring” subpoenas if Sherrill didn’t comply. He has also warned that Republicans may not have long to pursue their investigation if Democrats regain control of the House: “With a midterm election coming up, if we don’t keep the majority, will it all just go away?” he said in August.

The Sherrill administration indicated it would cooperate with some of those congressional requests, but Republicans allege that administration officials only ended up producing a handful of peripheral documents, such as electronic meeting invites and an email from the state’s Elections Division to county-level election administrators, that don’t explain how the error was discovered and why it took so long to fix it.

According to the letter sent to Emehelu, New Jersey officials cited “privilege issues” as the reason for delaying and denying some requests, an explanation that Republicans blasted as insufficient.

“Without additional details, it strains credulity to believe that every document responsive to the Committees’ request that has not been produced is privileged or that the privileges are being appropriately invoked,” the letter states.

The Department of Justice also made demands for more information on the error, at one point suggesting that noncitizens who voted due to the error could be prosecuted. Sherrill rebuffed the administration’s requests for personal details on those noncitizens on July 28, citing federal privacy laws.