The Trump administration is seeking to use New Jersey’s disclosure that a software error improperly registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote as fresh support for its lawsuit demanding access to the state’s unredacted voter rolls.In reaction to the groundbreaking development in the Garden State on Tuesday, the Justice Department‘s Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon notified Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) in a letter that the department had opened a federal review of the incident. She gave the state five business days to provide extensive information about the affected registrants.The DOJ then filed Dhillon’s notice in the case United States v. Caldwell, its pending voter-data lawsuit against New Jersey, telling U.S. District Judge Zahid Nisar Quraishi that the incident provides an “additional basis” for obtaining an electronic copy of the statewide voter registration list.
Dhillon hinted that aggressive moves in the case were coming on Tuesday, posting to X to “stay tuned” after saying the DOJ has already been attempting to help the state “avoid exactly such ‘errors.'”Hans von Spakovsky, a former DOJ attorney and senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, said the disclosure could provide the DOJ with evidence that New Jersey failed to maintain accurate voter rolls as required by federal law.“If I was still a lawyer at the Justice Department, I would immediately produce evidence of this error and mistake that occurred,” von Spakovsky told the Washington Examiner.He said the department could argue to the court: “Look, they are not correctly maintaining their voter list the way federal law requires, and it’s just another piece of evidence that shows that we need access to the list to see what other problems and mistakes they’ve made.”New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill talks to reporters during a news conference in Trenton, N.J., Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
