New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced Tuesday that a software error at the state's motor vehicles department inadvertently registered approximately 6,600 individuals who are not U.S. citizens to vote. Despite this significant oversight, fewer than 400 of these individuals have actually cast ballots in elections since June 2023.The Democratic governor, who assumed office in January, revealed she was informed last week about the software mistake within New Jersey's Motor Vehicle System. This flaw, active between June 2023 and June 2024, led to the registration of people who had explicitly indicated they were not U.S. citizens. Governor Sherrill stressed that the individuals involved did nothing wrong and were mistakenly registered "through no fault of their own."This disclosure comes as President Donald Trump has undertaken an aggressive push to identify and mitigate voting by noncitizens, particularly ahead of November's congressional elections. However, experts have long determined that non-citizen voting does not constitute a significant problem in American elections.The Democratic governor revealed she was informed last week about the software mistake within New Jersey's Motor Vehicle System (Reuters/Vincent Alban)The state's preliminary analysis showed that fewer than 400 of those 6,600 - Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated people who were scattered across the state - actually voted. Sherrill said she has ordered the removal of those individuals who were mistakenly added to the voter rolls and will replace the vendor responsible for the error, which occurred before she took office.“As the Trump administration tries to weaponize elections for political gain, I am ensuring we protect our elections," Sherrill said in a statement. “The difference is simple: when we find a problem, we don't hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies. We investigate it, we fix it, and we tell the public. That's what accountability and good governance look like, and that's exactly what my administration is doing."Trump has spent years raising doubts about electoral outcomes, falsely asserting that his ​2020 loss to Democrat ⁠Joe Biden was rigged. He has also advanced other false claims, including that mail-in balloting is rife with fraud, voting machines are untrustworthy and non-citizen voting is widespread.Numerous courts and vote recounts found no evidence of large-scale fraud in the 2020 election. A Reuters data analysis revealed that voting violations by noncitizens were often inadvertent, the result of misinformation from others or confusion on their part.Last week, the Trump administration threatened state officials with fines and criminal charges if they do not comply with election security measures, including providing the federal government with unredacted voter rolls.Courts have blocked Trump administration efforts to obtain states' unredacted voter rolls, which contain sensitive, personally identifiable information about residents.