GOP uses New Jersey voting glitch to push to pass SAVE Act before Congress' recess

The governor said a software issue allowed noncitizens to register to vote.

The Trump administration is pointing to the case of incorrectly registered non-citizen voters in New Jersey in its final push to get the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, or the SAVE America Act, as Republicans refer to it, passed before the Senate's summer recess.

About 6,600 people in New Jersey who said they were not U.S. citizens were incorrectly registered to vote because a software error allowed them to between June 2023 and June 2024, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said.

Sherrill said the error occurred when individuals applying for drivers' licenses or identification cards were asked if they wanted to register to vote. Even though they indicated they were noncitizens, the system made them eligible to register, she said.

Fewer than 400 people who were erroneously registered were found to have actually voted and were not tied to any political party and weren't all cast in the same election, Sherrill said, and the state has "no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed."

The Trump administration said the New Jersey case is "another reason" for Congress to pass the legislation. President Donald Trump again promoted the act on his social media platform on Wednesday and alleged without evidence that the number of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey was much higher.

"Republicans, get smart and straighten out our Crooked Elections!" Trump wrote.

Millions of ballots have been cast in New Jersey elections since the erroneous registrations were made and there is no indication that any outcome would have been different.

Trump has long suggested, without evidence, that elections were rigged. His own voter fraud commission, established in his first term, was disbanded in 2018. Trump's own attorney general in his first term, Bill Barr, said after the 2020 election that the Justice Department uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Audits of voter rolls in several states has shown that noncitizen voting is extraordinarily rare.

During his speech on his administration's accomplishments under his "One Big, Beautiful Bill" in Georgia on Wednesday, Trump used New Jersey as reason to pass the SAVE Act.

"They voted against voter ID," Trump said, referring to congressional Democrats. "Can you believe that? Well, you saw what happened."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Trump's messaging at a news briefing Thursday, pressing the Senate to pass the bill by the August recess.

Leavitt said she suspects there are more no