New Jersey Republicans are demanding a bipartisan legislative probe with subpoena power after state records revealed roughly 75,000 noncitizens were summoned for jury duty each year, a discovery that extends the motor voter registration scandal well beyond its original scope.
State Sen. Kristin Corrado, the top Republican on New Jersey's Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital she had repeatedly warned state officials that the automatic voter registration system at the Motor Vehicle Commission lacked basic safeguards. Each time, she said, officials brushed her off. The MVC's answer amounted to little more than posted signs telling noncitizens they could not register.
Corrado did not hold back about what that meant in practice:
"So people were on the honor system. We did not think that was acceptable or satisfactory or enough of a safeguard."
The honor system, it turns out, failed on a scale that now reaches beyond the voter rolls and into the state court system itself. Peter McAleer, a spokesman for the New Jersey state courts, confirmed that the jury system draws from lists maintained by the Motor Vehicle Commission, the Department of Taxation, and the state elections department. Noncitizens can lawfully appear on the taxation rolls, but their presence in the MVC and elections databases funneled them straight into jury pools.
McAleer put the number at approximately 75,000 individuals disqualified from jury service each year based solely on their lack of U.S. citizenship. Prospective jurors must complete a qualification questionnaire certifying their citizenship, and McAleer noted they face contempt-of-court penalties for false answers. But the sheer volume, 75,000 per year, raises a straightforward question: how did that many noncitizens end up in state databases that feed both voter rolls and jury pools?
Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, the ranking Republican on the state's Joint Budget Committee, said the revelation validated concerns his caucus had raised for years.
"The fact is that the people in charge for so long said this absolutely was impossible; Republicans were 'conspiracy theorists.'"
O'Scanlon described the jury-summons discovery as the "tip of the iceberg" and said subpoena-powered hearings are the only way to determine the full extent of the problem. He pointed to upcoming elections with potentially narrow margins as reason to act fast.
"We need to get on this quickly because we have elections coming up that are critical, that could be slim margins. And also you want the people of New Jersey to believe in the [integrity of their voter rolls] and their elections."
Corrado said she had gone beyond the MVC commissioner and contacted the Secretary of State, at the time, Lt. Gov. Taheshia Way, without getting satisfactory answers. The lack of response, she said, only deepened her concern about how many other state systems had been compromised by the same flawed data.
Corrado and Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco have now introduced legislation that would eliminate automatic voter registration through the MVC entirely, impose voter identification requirements, and mandate regular audits of election data systems. Bucco framed the bill as a common-sense response to a problem the state can no longer deny.
"New Jerseyans need more than just excuses and finger pointing, they deserve action, and there are commonsense steps we can take right now."
Bucco was blunt about the MVC's role: "Get the MVC out of the voter registration business."
The bill's prospects in the Democrat-controlled legislature remain uncertain. Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat from Linden, signaled through his team that he prefers to wait for Gov. Mikie Sherrill's own independent probe to run its course before the legislature acts. Scutari credited Sherrill for transparency and said public trust depends on the security of voter registration systems, but stopped short of endorsing the subpoena-powered investigation Republicans want.
"A healthy democracy depends on the security of our voter registration systems and the stewardship of the individuals entrusted with ensuring our elections are free, fair, and accessible. It also depends on public trust, and Governor Sherrill deserves credit for being transparent about these failures... [and] launch[ing] an independent investigation..."
Corrado expressed direct concern that the governor's investigation is too narrow to uncover the full scope of the problem. Sherrill's probe, she said, focuses only on what officials have labeled a motor vehicle "glitch", a framing Corrado finds inadequate given the jury-summons numbers and the systemic nature of the data failures.
"I have concerns about that because this independent investigation is very limited in scope. It is limited to what they're calling the motor vehicle 'glitch'."
Sen. Joe Pennacchio went further, calling Sherrill's effort a "whitewash." He noted that the governor has spread blame across multiple parties, the French software firm IDEMIA, the Murphy administration, and President Donald Trump, without addressing the underlying question of how noncitizens moved through state systems unchecked.
"The governor has blamed IDEMIA, the Murphy administration and, of course, President Donald Trump for their ever-increasing numbers."
Pennacchio issued a statement calling for the U.S. Attorney General's office, under Todd Blanche, to take charge of the investigation. He argued that Trenton has demonstrated it cannot police itself.
"The disclosure that 75,000 noncitizens were summoned as potential members of juries screams for a thorough federal investigation."
"As the scope of this problem grows daily and with the refusal of the Democratic Legislature to investigate, it is obvious the U.S. Attorney General's office must take charge."
The automatic voter registration system was implemented under former Gov. Phil Murphy. His spokesman, Mahen Gunaratna, told Fox News that Murphy had "no knowledge" of the issues at the MVC. Corrado found that claim difficult to accept.
"I find that hard to believe, but it's incredibly troubling that the governor did not know what his cabinet members were doing or what was going on right underneath him."
That defense, a governor who either did not know or chose not to look, leaves the state in an uncomfortable position either way. If Murphy genuinely had no knowledge, it suggests a breakdown in executive oversight so severe that tens of thousands of noncitizens cycled through voter and jury databases without anyone in the governor's office raising a flag. If the problems were known and ignored, the implications are worse.
Corrado laid out the stakes plainly:
"All [this] put our election integrity at risk, all questions that have to be answered. And the only way to answer those questions is through a bipartisan, legislative committee."
Several critical facts remain unresolved. The precise number of noncitizens who were actually registered to vote, as opposed to those summoned for jury duty, has not been publicly established. The specific nature of the MVC "glitch" that Sherrill's probe is examining has not been explained in detail. And it remains unclear whether Attorney General Blanche has taken any action in response to Pennacchio's request for federal scrutiny.
O'Scanlon acknowledged the political complexity but argued the core issue cuts across party lines.
"There are some folks on the extreme on both sides, but those of us in the middle who have said there are real issues here, and they were ignored, and we were accused of being conspiracy theorists, only to find out that we were absolutely right; again."
He added a warning that applies to both parties: "We shouldn't dig this hole any deeper."
When the people who sounded the alarm for years get dismissed as conspiracy theorists, and the conspiracy turns out to be real, the question is no longer whether the system failed, it is whether anyone in charge actually wants to fix it.
