The Trump administration is pointing to the case of incorrectly registered non-citizen voters in New Jersey in its remaining push to get the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, or the SAVE America Act, as Republicans discuss with it, handed earlier than the Senate’s summer time recess.
About 6,600 folks in New Jersey who mentioned they weren’t U.S. residents had been incorrectly registered to vote as a result of a software program error allowed them to between June 2023 and June 2024, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill mentioned.
Sherrill mentioned the error occurred when people making use of for drivers’ licenses or identification playing cards had been requested in the event that they needed to register to vote. Although they indicated they had been noncitizens, the system made them eligible to register, she mentioned.
New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill talks to reporters throughout a information convention in Trenton, N.J., Nov. 5, 2025.
Seth Wenig/AP Photograph
Fewer than 400 individuals who had been erroneously registered had been discovered to have truly voted and weren’t tied to any political get together and weren’t all forged in the identical election, Sherrill mentioned, and the state has “no proof right now that any elections had been swayed.”
Sherrill was sworn into workplace in January 2025.
The Trump administration mentioned the New Jersey case is “another excuse” for Congress to go the laws. President Donald Trump once more promoted the act on his social media platform on Wednesday and alleged with out proof that the variety of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey was a lot increased.
“Republicans, get sensible and straighten out our Crooked Elections!” Trump wrote.
Thousands and thousands of ballots have been forged in New Jersey elections because the inaccurate registrations had been made and there’s no indication that any final result would have been totally different.
Trump has lengthy prompt, with out proof, that elections had been rigged. His personal voter fraud fee, established in his first time period, was disbanded in 2018. Trump’s personal lawyer basic in his first time period, Invoice Barr, mentioned after the 2020 election that the Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Audits of voter rolls in a number of states has proven that noncitizen voting is extraordinarily rare.
Throughout his speech on his administration’s accomplishments below his “One Large, Stunning Invoice” in Georgia on Wednesday, Trump used New Jersey as cause to go the SAVE Act.
“They voted in opposition to voter ID,” Trump mentioned, referring to congressional Democrats. “Are you able to consider that? Properly, you noticed what occurred.”
White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivers remarks throughout a information briefing within the Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home, July 23, 2026 in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP by way of Getty Photos
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump’s messaging at a information briefing Thursday, urgent the Senate to go the invoice by the August recess.
Leavitt mentioned she suspects there are extra non-citizens on voter rolls throughout the nation, although consultants and state officers have noted that the system the administration desires states to make use of to purge their rolls is liable to errors.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune speaks as Senate Republican leaders maintain a press convention following their weekly coverage lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 21, 2026.
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
“[Sherill] says it is 6,600; we suspect it is a heck of much more, not simply in New Jersey, however in states throughout the nation. The president is hellbent on attending to the underside of this,” Leavitt mentioned.
Trump has argued on his social media, with out proof, that the variety of noncitizen voters in New Jersey was a lot increased, showing to reference letters that Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Markwayne Mullin despatched final week that alleged New Jersey may have had “as many as 35,152 non-citizens registered to vote.” However Mullin has not defined how he arrived at these numbers.
Vice President JD Vance tagged New Jersey Democratic Sens. Corey Booker and Andy Kim in a post on X on Tuesday, pushing them to vote to go the act.
“If solely there have been a technique to cease the sort of “software program error” that allowed non-citizens to vote in our elections,” Vance wrote.
Folks stand in line to vote throughout early voting in Hudson County, November 2, 2024, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Gary Hershorn/ABC Information
The SAVE America Act would require states to acquire in-person “documentary” proof of U.S. citizenship earlier than registering an individual to vote and a photograph ID on the time of voting, though noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal and state elections, although some cities permit noncitizens to vote on some native elections. It could additionally require states to take away noncitizens from current voter rolls.
Voting rights teams and various congressional Democrats have known as it a “voter suppression invoice,” arguing that it may disenfranchise voters who’re residents however should not have the required paperwork. They’ve additionally raised issues over married girls whose present final names don’t match their beginning certificates, which is perhaps used as a qualifying doc to vote.
“We are going to combat like hell to verify Trump cannot silence voters,” Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer mentioned on the Senate flooring final week. “Donald, in relation to the SAVE Act, the courts have rejected it, Congress has rejected it, even members of your individual get together have rejected it. The SAVE Act is not going anyplace.”
A ballot employee collects mail in ballots from a drop field for the New Jersey main election, June 4, 2024, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Gary Hershorn/ABC Information
The Division of Justice mentioned Tuesday that it’s investigating the New Jersey case and requested Sherill share private data on the registered non-citizens the state recognized inside 5 enterprise days, together with “their full names, dates of beginning, nationalities, residential addresses, and registration dates and places” and extra particulars on the 400 individuals who voted.
A spokesperson for Sherrill framed the DOJ’s request because the White Home “weaponizing the Justice Division.”
“The Trump administration has a protracted historical past of weaponizing the Justice Division for political functions and making an attempt to overturn election outcomes. Governor Sherrill has been clear that she’s going to use all of the authorized instruments obtainable to her to guard New Jerseyans’ private data,” Sherrill’s spokesperson Sean Higgins wrote in an announcement to ABC Information.
Higgins didn’t say if the state plans to reply formally to the DOJ.
ABC Information’ Oren Oppenheim, Nicholas Kerr and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
