House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, joined by Rep. Jeff Van Drew and Rep. Laurel Lee, subpoenaed New Jersey Acting Secretary of State Shirley Emehelu on Wednesday, October 21, over the state's registration of approximately 6,600 noncitizens to vote between June 2023 and June 2024, the House Judiciary Committee said.

Source: House Judiciary Committee

According to the New Jersey Globe, a software error at the Motor Vehicle Commission registered people to vote even though they had answered “no” when asked if they were U.S. citizens. The glitch was fixed in June 2024, but the registrations remained on the voter rolls until Governor Mikie Sherrill's administration disclosed the problem in July 2026 and began correcting it.

Source: New Jersey Globe

6,600registrations at issue
12documents produced so far
Nov 16subpoena deadline

Officials subsequently deleted about 5,100 registrations, flagged another 1,450 for county review, and found that roughly 340 people registered through the glitch had cast ballots, the Globe reported. The committees, which first requested records on August 3, say the state has produced only 12 documents in total and none explaining how the error was discovered or why the registrations stayed on the rolls until 2026.

Sherrill, who inherited the problem from former Governor Phil Murphy, said she learned of it shortly before its public disclosure, immediately ordered an investigation and the removal of improperly registered voters, and appointed former Republican U.S. Senator and New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa to lead an independent review. In a statement on Wednesday she accused congressional Republicans of “political theater” thirteen days before the midterm elections and said her administration had been transparent. Van Drew countered that the committee had given the administration every opportunity to provide answers and had received “a handful of documents that explain next to nothing.”

The subpoena, which does not require Emehelu to testify, compels her to produce documents at the House Judiciary Committee's offices in Washington by November 16. It covers eight areas, including how New Jersey complies with federal election laws, verifies citizenship, removes ineligible voters, uses the federal SAVE database to check citizenship or immigration status, and deals with IDEMIA, the MVC's voter registration software vendor. IDEMIA has disputed responsibility for the malfunction, maintaining that its system accurately recorded applicants' responses.