Urging Supreme Court to greenlight Trump’s mail voting order, DOJ seizes on New Jersey registration glitch

By Jacob Knutson

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer at the White House in February 2026 in Washington, D.C (Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer at the White House in February 2026 in Washington, D.C (Photo: Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) seized on a recent registration glitch in New Jersey that led to noncitizens being added to the state’s voter rolls while asking the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump’s sweeping attack on mail voting to take effect before the upcoming midterms.

It’s just the latest example of the Trump administration or GOP aiming to exploit the error to advance an anti-voting agenda. Already, the DOJ and Republicans in Congress have each announced probes into the episode, and Trump has cited it to push for the SAVE America Act.

In a new filing Tuesday, Solicitor General D. John Sauer claimed the state’s disclosure last month that a software failure improperly registered roughly 6,600 people in recent years was proof that voting restrictions included in Trump’s March 2026 executive order were necessary. 

Sauer, one of Trump’s former defense attorneys, made the claim while again asking the Supreme Court to lift a lower court ruling currently barring federal agencies from carrying out Trump’s restrictions. 

“This Court should stay the injunction, and it should do so as soon as possible given preparations for the upcoming election,” he wrote.

New Jersey is among the 23 states and D.C. that are urging the Supreme Court not to lift the block as part of their lawsuit against Trump’s anti-voting order.

The Supreme Court could now rule on the DOJ’s emergency request at any moment. 

Through the order, Trump directed the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to only deliver ballots to voters pre-approved by the federal government. Additionally, it included a directive to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) to create state-specific lists of eligible voters. Combined, those lists would amount to a federal voter registration database, which has never before existed in the U.S.

Sauer implied that Trump’s directive to DHS and SSA would have caught the noncitizens erroneously added to New Jersey’s voter rolls.

“Yet New Jersey and the other respondents inexplicably object that it would be an affront to their sovereignty for DHS to provide them with a list of individuals who meet the criteria for voting in federal elections,” he wrote.

Sauer greatly overstated the extent of the glitch. While he asserted that it permitted “at least 400” noncitizens to vote in recent elections, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) previously said that “fewer than 400” of those affected voted. 

Sauer also framed Trump’s order as merely creating “tools” states could use to vet their registration lists and ensure that mail ballots are received and used only by authorized voters. 

However, election officials, pro-voting groups and dozens of former state leaders warned in recent court filings that the order would give the executive branch unparalleled influence over elections and who can cast a ballot.