“All 6,600 individuals indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘NO’ to being a US Citizen. This information was recorded correctly and always available.”
The software company that Democrat New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said was at fault for registering 6,600 noncitizens to vote in elections has said that it was actually the New Jersey government that was at fault for illegally registering the immigrants.
Earlier this week, Sherrill said that there was a "serious software error" that led to 6,600 noncitizens registering to vote in New Jersey elections and that the state estimated that 400 illegal votes were cast, placing the blame on the state’s Motor Vehicle System involving French tech company IDEMIA. However, IDEMIA has said that the state had access to the information showing that those people were not US citizens, but registered them to vote anyway.
“The 6,600 records submitted to the [Motor Vehicle Commission] and Division of Elections contained correct information according to the design specifications as set out by the state,” IDEMIA spokesperson Lisa Shoemaker told the New York Post. “All 6,600 individuals indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘NO’ to being a US Citizen. This information was recorded correctly and always available.”
“At no point was a noncitizen ever marked as a citizen in the database," she added. Sherrill, on the other hand, had claimed that the "system" is what registered the noncitizens to vote.
The statement from IDEMIA raises questions about the security of elections in New Jersey as well as whether the voter data was properly screened by New Jersey officials. New Jersey officials have disputed the claims from IDEMIA.
“No, that is not correct,” an official said. “Anytime somebody answers ‘no’ to the citizenship question, that record should not be transmitted to the Division of Elections.”
Shoemaker, however, said: “IDEMIA does not control or manage voter enrollment, our role is simply to collect self-reported citizenship and interest data. This leads to more questions – if the Division of Elections had missing information which is required to register in the State of New Jersey, did the Division of Elections approve these individuals be added to the Voter Rolls."
After Sherrill announced the error on Tuesday, a probe from the DOJ was quickly launched into the situation and cited the situation in a filing for the DOJ's ongoing litigation for voter roll data in New Jersey as the Trump administration is seeking to secure elections around the country.
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