Woman from Ecuador charged with voting in NJ elections amid registration scandal

🗳️ Federal prosecutors say Mercedes Alexandra Cardoso voted in New Jersey's June 2024 primary.

⚖️ Cardoso claimed she was a U.S. citizen when she registered online to vote, authorities said.

🔎 The case comes as New Jersey faces scrutiny over thousands of noncitizens added to voter rolls.

A woman from Ecuador registered herself to vote online and cast a ballot illegally in the June 2024 primary in New Jersey, according to federal prosecutors.

On Friday, Mercedes Alexandra Cardoso was charged with voting by an alien in a federal election. She faces up to one year in prison if convicted on that count.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Cardoso lived in Union County at the time she cast her ballot, but she was not a U.S. citizen. Cardoso was in the state on a B-2 visa; the temporary nonimmigrant visa is only for foreign nationals traveling for pleasure, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Cardoso registered to vote online through the New Jersey Division of Elections Online Voter Registration System, according to federal prosecutors. She's accused of falsely indicating that she was a U.S. citizen on her voter registration form.

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Earlier this year, federal prosecutors charged several other noncitizens with voting in elections in New Jersey. In one case, investigators found a woman had voted after overstaying her visa by 26 years.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill at Union Baptist Church in Trenton on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Office of Governor/Tim Larsen)

New Jersey's voter rolls face renewed scrutiny

Cardoso's case is separate from the recent controversy involving thousands of noncitizens who were mistakenly registered to vote through the Motor Vehicle Commission. In the last seven weeks, New Jersey's voter registration process has come under extreme scrutiny.

In July, Gov. Mikie Sherrill revealed the stunning discovery that 6,600 noncitizens had registered to vote. The Democratic administration says it has removed 5,100 noncitizens from the rolls and county clerks are reviewing the remaining individuals.

Sherrill said that a serious MVC software error between June 2023 and June 2024 allowed the noncitizens to register to vote. She blamed tech vendor IDEMIA for the issue; however, IDEMIA said its software worked exactly as the state intended and that the Division of Elections failed to verify the citizenship status of individuals who registered to vote.

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An IDEMIA machine is used to scan passports by TSA agents (Rick Rickman, Townsquare Media NJ)

Sherrill, Republicans clash over voter registration

Sherrill has repeatedly said the issue was isolated to the MVC and only spanned a single year. She has dismissed Republican concerns that voter registration problems could go deeper, as the Democratic governor said they were only interested in using the issue for political gain.

State Republicans have insisted that many noncitizens registered to vote years before the voter registration error and through means other than the MVC, including through online forms like Cardoso is accused of using.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J. 2nd District, said last month that House Republicans would continue to pressure the Sherrill administration for accountability.

"For years, those of us who raised concerns about the integrity of our voter rolls were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Then New Jersey admitted that thousands of individuals who said they were not citizens were registered to vote, and many registered through the error went on to cast ballots," Van Drew said.

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