(Washington, D.C.) – New Jersey officials recently confessed that about 6,600 people who told the state they were not American citizens were registered to vote anyway, and at least 340 of them went on to cast votes. The mistaken registrations, which occurred between June 2023 and June 2024, were detected two years ago but never publicly admitted until July 2026.
Justin Riemer, President of Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (“RITE”), a non-profit organization that supports litigation to protect election security, testified about the issue Tuesday before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight in a hearing titled, “Restoring Election Integrity: Oversight of Voter Fraud in New Jersey.”
Riemer explored the details of the New Jersey fiasco and offered suggestions for what Congress can do to address the problem:
“[Congress] should pass real citizenship-verification requirements: the SAVE America Act would bar a state from registering those who do not present documentary proof of citizenship — and because the New Jersey applicants presented none, it would have kept them off the rolls.
“But even narrower reforms directed specifically at DMV registration would plug a huge hole, such as requiring state agencies like DMVs to offer registration only to those who provide proof of citizenship, or at least prohibiting agencies from offering registration to those who provide documentation evidencing they are noncitizens.
“Congress should also require states to use the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE system to identify noncitizens already on the rolls and to codify the Trump administration’s efforts to make it free and expand its capabilities.”
In addition, Riemer said Congress could also:
- Amend the Help America Vote Act to verify citizenship using the license and Social Security data states already collect.
- Require states to develop programs to remove noncitizens just as they must for the deceased and nonresidents.
- Clarify that pre-election “blackout” periods restricting certain list maintenance activities do not apply to noncitizen removals.
Riemer’s written testimony can be found here, and his oral testimony is here.