The best answer to election fraud claims is old-fashioned transparency

New Jersey made national headlines earlier this week when it was revealed that 6,600 noncitizens had been added to the state’s voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024 — and roughly 400 of them had cast ballots since then.

Not good.

Especially given the moment, when debates over election integrity have become intensely polarized and the Trump administration has made the issue a central policy priority.

The New Jersey admission added fuel to this political fire.

In reality, stories like these make headlines because they are exceptions.

No systems are perfect and these errors do not constitute evidence that election systems are routinely riddled with fraud.

Still, it was good to see a state leader address the issue head-on.

Indeed, New Jersey Gov.

Mikie Sherrill offered a useful model for how to move forward after such a serious error.

State leaders, particularly those already sparring with the Trump administration over voter-roll information, would do well to pay attention.

“When we find a problem, we don’t hide it, deny it, or invent conspiracies.

We investigate it, we fix it, ...