Topic of the Week: 6,600 Noncitizens Found to Have Been Registered to Vote in New Jersey

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill announced last week that about 6,600 noncitizens were accidentally registered to vote in 2023-2024 because of a “serious software error” in the state’s Motor Vehicle System. About 400 of them improperly cast votes, but no “elections were swayed” because of those votes, she said. Sherrill said the noncitizens were now being removed from the voter rolls. Our analysts rated media coverage in our Topic of the Week.

NBC News published the most fact-based and minimally biased reporting in our content set. An article on the NBC News website recounts Sherrill’s statements about the error and the White House’s response. It also gives details about allegations by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin that 35,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in the state. Analysts rated the article as a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle” bias.

An article by the New Jersey Globe was rated as “analysis” with a “skews left” bias. In it, writer Donald Scarinci commends Gov. Sherrill’s handling of the situation. He says that Democrats can learn from her example, encouraging them, for example, to be honest that President Biden’s management of the southern border was “a mistake,” that Biden should not have sought re-election, and that they should look forward, not backward, when addressing the affordability crisis. “Admitting mistakes is not capitulation. It is leadership,” he concludes.

An article by Raw Story and a video from CNN’s “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip” were both rated as “opinion” with a “strong left” bias.” In the CNN video, Phillip plays a clip of Gov. Sherrill announcing the software glitch and then discusses it with panelists Jesse Arm of the Manhattan Institute, political commentators Keith Boykin and Scott Jennings, and Alencia Johnson, former senior adviser with the Harris and Biden campaigns. Phillip takes issue with Arm’s and Jennings’ belief that this incident is proof that voter fraud is “widespread” in New Jersey. Boykin commends Sherrill’s handling of the error and says it’s the opposite of how President Trump reacted when he lost the 2020 presidential election. “This was not fraud. This was a mistake,” Boykin alleges. Johnson says Trump and Republicans are using this “honest mistake” as an excuse “in order to ram through the Save Act.”

The Raw Story article focuses on IDEMIA, the company that created the software that falsely registered the noncitizens to vote. The story features comments by Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who said IDEMIA also works in federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. “… is our national security safe with them at the helm?” Gottheimer asks. Analysts found that the article’s headline, “Trump’s election security boogeyman revealed to be embedded across admin,” implies that a technical glitch in New Jersey is a problem throughout the Trump administration. The article lacks basic facts about what happened in New Jersey, but it platforms Gottheimer, who insinuates that IDEMIA could be responsible for large-scale tech issues all over the federal government. This is fear mongering, deflection and conspiratorial language.

A video from the Don’t Walk, Run! Productions YouTube channel begins with this title: “The Thing Democrats Say Never Happens… HAPPENED!” Host Andrew (no last name given) mocks Gov. Sherrill’s explanation about the software glitch and accuses her of blaming Trump for the error. Andrew says that Democrats are always proclaiming that there’s no voter fraud and noncitizens are never allowed to vote, but “don’t buy it” because this is proof that it does occur. He also accuses Sherrill of ignoring the Trump administration when it recently sent a letter stating that possibly 35,000 noncitizens were registered to vote in the state. Andrew says she “writes it off entirely and demands hard, irrefutable evidence,” which he calls a “blatant double standard” because we’re supposed to “take her word for it” that she has fixed the “massive multi-year voter fraud oversight.” The video ends with an accusation: “[Sherrill] isn’t defending democracy. She’s actively dismantling it to score cheap political points.” Analysts found the video to be “snarky and insulting,” and rated it as “unfair persuasion” with a “hyper-partisan right” bias.

An article by HotAir takes a similar tone, as evidenced by the headline: “NJ Gov: That Funny Thing That Never Happens Happened Again at the DMV, 6600 Times.” The article notes that Sherrill’s announcement comes at the same time “her fellow Democrats are sneering at Trump’s push to bolster election security.” The article expresses support for President Trump’s SAVE America Act, stating that “the Protection Racket Media has worked overtime to paint illegal voting as mainly a conservative fever dream,” but this incident in New Jersey is proof that the law is necessary. However, analysts found that some of the statements in support of the law are misleading and induce speculation, including this one: “…motor-voter systems have no checks on these processes to catch people who fraudulently register to vote; they are designed to exclude citizenship verification.” Our analysts conducted research that disputes this. The article was rated as “contains misleading info” with a “hyper-partisan right” bias.

Follow along with our weekly Topic of the Week exercise by visiting our website. New Topics of the Week are posted each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with our analysts. Learn more here.

Beth Heldebrandt is Director of Communications at Ad Fontes Media. She has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of journalism and public relations, and was an adjunct instructor of journalism for 17 years at Eastern Illinois University. Beth has a B.A. in journalism from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and an M.A. in English from Eastern Illinois University. She’s a mom and grandma, and enjoys traveling, puzzles and reading.