EDITOR'S NOTE: Republicans across New Jersey have no plans to let last week's voting imbroglio go. Here is a joint statement from all 21 Republican county chairs in the state. The letter was released by Laura Ali of Morris County.

The Republican County Chairs representing all 21 counties of New Jersey are united in calling for a full, independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances that resulted in approximately 6,600 individuals who indicated that they were not United States citizens being erroneously registered to vote through New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission.

This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of public trust.

Every eligible New Jersey voter - Republican, Democrat, Independent or unaffiliated -deserves complete confidence that our voter registration system is accurate, secure and administered in accordance with the law. And every candidate who runs in a campaign with an extremely close outcome deserves to know the ballots cast were valid ones.

The disclosure that thousands of individuals were placed on New Jersey’s voter rolls despite indicating that they were not U.S. citizens raises serious questions that must be answered fully and publicly.

Governor Mikie Sherrill has announced an internal investigation into the software failure.

While that is an important first step, the magnitude of this failure warrants a comprehensive investigation with the independence, transparency and authority necessary to determine exactly what happened and ensure it cannot happen again.

New Jersey residents deserve answers.

A full investigation should determine:

Who the list of 6,600 individuals are and what towns and county they reside in.
How and why the MVC system registered individuals who specifically indicated that they were not U.S. citizens.

When state officials and the MVC first became aware of the problem.

Which state officials, agencies, contractors and vendors knew about the problem and when they knew it.

Why the issue was not identified and corrected sooner.

How many improperly registered individuals cast ballots and in which elections.
Whether similar errors occurred outside the currently identified June 2023 through June 2024 period.

Whether additional voter registration records may have been affected by other systems or data errors.

What safeguards failed and what corrective measures are necessary to prevent this from happening again.

The investigation must have the ability to obtain relevant documents, communications, contracts and system records and to hear testimony from the appropriate government officials, MVC personnel, election officials, contractors and vendors.

Its findings should be released publicly so New Jersey voters can see for themselves what happened, how it happened and what is being done to correct it.

We also support a comprehensive audit of New Jersey's voter registration system to verify the accuracy and eligibility of the state's voter rolls and identify any additional systemic problems.

This frankly, is long overdue.

Election integrity depends not only on preventing intentional misconduct, but also on identifying and correcting administrative and technological failures that can undermine confidence in our elections.

New Jersey voters should not have to speculate about what happened.

They deserve facts.

They deserve transparency.

And they deserve confidence that every lawful vote is protected and that our voter registration system operates accurately and securely.

As the Republican County Chairs representing every county in New Jersey, we jointly call upon state leaders to establish a full, independent and transparent investigation and to make its findings available to the people of New Jersey.

Public confidence in our elections is too important for anything less.