Conservative pundit Scott Jennings confronted CNN host Abby Phillip on Tuesday, challenging her perspective on voter fraud in the wake of a New Jersey scandal involving thousands of immigrants improperly placed on voter rolls. The exchange occurred on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” as the program discussed New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill’s announcement that over 6,000 non-citizens were added to the state’s voter rolls, with around 400 casting ballots since 2023.
Phillip characterized the situation as "obviously not a great situation" but suggested it "doesn’t demonstrate that there’s widespread voter fraud in New Jersey or anywhere." This prompted pushback from Jesse Arm, head of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, who argued that the numbers constituted "pretty widespread voter fraud."
Phillip questioned Arm's definition of widespread, noting that the 6,600 non-citizens represented approximately 0.006% of New Jersey's registered voters and that only about 400 cast ballots. She contextualized this by stating that Governor Sherrill won her election by half a million votes, meaning the non-citizen votes would represent a minuscule fraction of the total vote.
Jennings then interjected, asking Phillip, "What’s your tolerance for this?" Phillip countered that the discussion was about whether the issue was widespread or rare, not about tolerance. Jennings pressed further, stating, "I have zero tolerance for this. By the way, this isn’t the only place this is happening."
Phillip then pivoted, questioning Jennings about the administration's use of a system that a federal judge had previously ruled was inaccurately removing U.S. citizens from voter rolls. Jennings described this as a "convenient deflection" and suggested the New Jersey revelation was detrimental to Democrats regarding the debate over the SAVE Act.
The White House has pointed to the New Jersey incident as evidence supporting the passage of the SAVE America Act, which would mandate proof of citizenship and voter ID at the polls. Former President Trump claimed that nearly 250,000 non-citizens were registered to vote across California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, including over 35,000 in New Jersey.
Governor Sherrill acknowledged receiving a similar figure from the Department of Homeland Security but stated she had not received supporting evidence. She attributed the erroneous voter roll entries, occurring between June 2023 and June 2024, to a "software glitch" at the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.