House Republicans asked state auditors and other officials Wednesday to examine whether Connecticut’s automated “motor voter” registration system is vulnerable to an error similar to one that led to 6,600 noncitizens being erroneously registered to vote in New Jersey.

The request came on the same day that officials at the Department of Motor Vehicles and secretary of the state’s office scrambled to respond to the disclosure that a West Hartford restaurant owner, recently detained as an undocumented immigrant, had registered to vote through the DMV system in 2018.

By day’s end, officials reached two conclusions: The restaurant owner, Sead “Seyo” Cecunjanin, whose detention last month was publicly condemned by elected Democrats, never voted; and that Connecticut did not experience the same problem as New Jersey, despite using the same vendor. 

The episode comes during the same week that Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas, Gov. Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong and others staged a press conference condemning President Donald J. Trump for fanning doubts about the integrity of U.S. elections in a televised speech from the White House.

In their letters to the auditors, secretary of the state and the DMV, House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, and the ranking Republicans on two legislative committees dealing with election and government oversight issues were careful in their demands for an inquiry.

“We are not suggesting Connecticut has experienced the failure New Jersey did, but we are asking your offices to demonstrate that similar errors could not happen here,” they told Thomas and Tony Guerrera, the DMV commissioner. “A prompt and detailed response will help reassure the public that every lawful vote in Connecticut is protected and every unlawful one is prevented.”

The letters from the Republican lawmakers did not mention Cecunjanin, whose voter registration was disclosed Tuesday by the West Hartford Republican town committee on its Facebook page.

“Our request is prompted by yesterday’s report that New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill disclosed this week that, between June 2023 and June 2024, roughly 6,600 noncitizens were registered to vote due to a Motor Vehicle Commission software error,” they wrote. “The system registered these individuals even after they indicated they were not U.S. citizens, and the error went undetected for a full year.”

On Tuesday, the same day as the disclosure by Sherrill, a Democrat elected governor of New Jersey last year, the West Hartford GOP posted a facsimile of Cecunjanin’s voter registration on its Facebook page.

“Democrats claim this is impossible and doesn’t happen, and is a ‘right wing conspiracy.’ Unfortunately they are only obfuscating the truth and deceiving the public, and now the West Hartford RTC has the receipts to prove it,” the town committee said in its post.

Cecunjanin could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

His detention by federal immigration agents was the subject of a contentious news conference called by U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-1st District, and joined by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. A federal judge ordered his release from a detention a dozen days after his arrest.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Cecunjanin entered the country illegally on a fraudulent passport in March 1997 and has been the subject of an order of removal issued six months later by an immigration judge. He has been seeking permanent resident status.

Matt Clyburn, a spokesman for the secretary of the state, said officials were confident that Cecunjanin’s voter registration was an anomaly, though they were uncertain as to exactly how it occurred.

“Any allegation that someone intentionally provided false information on a voter registration application is serious and should be reviewed by the appropriate authorities,” Clyburn said. “However, one case should not be mistaken for evidence of a broader problem.”

Documented cases of noncitizen voting are “exceedingly rare both in Connecticut and nationwide,” and records show that Cecunjanin, whether his registration was deliberate or in error, never cast a vote or took action when notified by canvass that he was being struck from the rolls of active voters in 2023, Clyburn said.

Connecticut is one of about two dozen states that have some form of automatic voter registration: Eligible citizens who interact with government agencies, most often the DMV, are registered to vote or have their existing registration information updated, unless they affirmatively decline.

Those interactions can occur online. In Connecticut, people renewing their drivers’ licenses on the DMV web site are prompted to register to vote. To do so, they must check off boxes attesting they are a U.S. citizen, 18 years old and eligible to vote.

Connecticut adopted its automatic voter registration system in 2016, the terms established in a settlement with the Department of Justice. The DOJ had concluded in a civil rights investigation that the state was in violation of the so-called “motor-voter” provisions of the National Voting Rights Act of 1993.

The Save America Act proposed by the Trump administration and stalled in Congress would, among other things, require proof of citizenship. Critics say the proposal would disenfranchise large numbers of eligible voters to purge the rare noncitizens who are illegally registered. 

As NJ Spotlight News reported, the Trump administration pounced on the New Jersey error.

“Every illegal ballot dilutes the voice of a lawful American citizen and undermines election integrity,” the White House said after Sherrill publicized an error her predecessor had failed to disclose. “The American people demand secure elections. Congress must pass the SAVE America Act without delay.”

Trump has persisted in asserting that his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 was the result of voter fraud in swing states, claims rebutted by state and local election officials and rejected in a series of unsuccessful court challenges. With a series of executive orders, he has asserted a federal role in overseeing elections, a function that the U.S. Constitution entrusts to the states.

New Jersey blamed the errors on a software glitch it attributed to its long-time vendor, IDEMIA, a tech company based in Paris. IDEMIA faulted the state, according to Politico and other news sites.

IDEMIA also is vendor for the DMV in Connecticut.

“The voter registration circumstances reported in New Jersey are not representative of Connecticut’s process,” Guerrera, the DMV commissioner, said in a statement. “Connecticut uses IDEMIA for one limited purpose as it pertains to voter registration: taking an applicant’s signature captured during the DMV licensing process and electronically attaching it to the voter registration card used by local registrars.”

Anyone applying to register to vote through the DMV must affirm under penalty of perjury they are a citizen.

“If a resident indicates they are not a United States citizen, the voter registration process is stopped,” Guerrera said. “If a resident indicates they are a United States citizen, the application is sent to the applicant’s local registrars, who will make the final eligibility determination.”

The House Republicans asked the bipartisan state auditors, a Democrat and a Republican appointed by the General Assembly, to direct their staff to examine several areas, including the “software logic that determines whether a DMV customer is registered to vote, whether it correctly records an applicant’s stated citizenship and eligibility, and what steps it takes to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote.”

They also asked “whether any erroneous voter registrations have already occurred in Connecticut, and if so, how they were identified and addressed.”