♪♪ >> From NJPBS Studios, this is "NJ Spotlight News" with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gagas.

Brianna Vannozzi's off.

Coming up, who's to blame for the MVC software glitch that added thousands of non-residents to New Jersey's voter rolls?

We'll take a closer look at this developing story and its potential impact on the midterm elections.

And later, whether you're a kid from one to 92, we look at the health benefits of the arts.

But first, Tuesday's tornadoes and flooding affected residents across the state.

Jersey meteorologist Joe Martucci joins us to help make sense of the extreme weather that we've been experiencing.

That's next.

Funding for NJ Spotlight News provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at rwjbh.org.

-It was a weather pattern not too often seen here in New Jersey.

Giant funnel clouds covering the sky, in some cases touching down as tornadoes.

The massive storm that rolled across the state led to three confirmed tornadoes so far.

One in Stanhope, one in Parsippany-Troy Hills, and a final one confirmed in Cape May Point by the National Weather Service.

They resulted in downed trees, flooding, and some really cool pictures for those lucky enough to be outside the path of the storm, but close enough to capture it.

So what exactly happened that brought tornadoes into New Jersey?

Earlier today I spoke with meteorologist Joe Martucci, the founder of Cup-O-Joe Weather and Drone, who helped explain what happened.

Joe, it's great to see you.

We are hearing and seeing reports of funnel clouds all across the state.

I know I myself was on a work meeting when I got the alert, like so many others that I needed to take shelter right away.

We did.

What do we know today in terms of how many funnel clouds there were?

How many actually turned into tornadoes?

Yeah, so right now we have reports of two tornadoes that actually touched the ground, both of them in Morris County.

But then there were two water spouts that were reported as well.

One just off of Kate in the lower part of Cape between Tom's River and I The National Weather Serv day here on our Wednesday to confirm the number of or the number of water spo that that water spout that actually became a tornado.

of this.

I've spoken with emergency management officials in the area, and they seem to think that this went on shore briefly, becoming a tornado, but then dissipating quickly.

So my thought would be by the end of the day today, there's the potential for three or maybe minus one tornado that actually happened in the Garden State on our Tuesday.

Okay, for those of us who are not meteorologists, what is the difference between a funnel cloud and a tornado?

How do we know when it's really dangerous?

Sure, so a funnel cloud and tornado are pretty much from the same family.

The difference is a tornado is essentially a funnel cloud that reaches the ground.

A funnel cloud is a cloud that, you know, is developing, might be developing into a tornado but never fully gets there, meaning it never fully reaches the ground.

So funnel cloud means no harm to people on the ground.

A tornado means harm to people on the ground because it touched the ground where we live, where our houses are, etc.

Can you explain the weather system that brings these spiraling clouds?

What happened that we saw in New Jersey and what should we be looking for?

Yeah, so there's two things that happened yesterday.

One happened at the surface, which is a warm front moving through.

So a warm front separates moist and hotter air to the south with whatever air is happening to the north.

It's summer, so it's still on the warmer side, but it wasn't as humid.

You might remember Monday was a beautiful day.

There was not a lot of humidity and then Tuesday there was.

What happens is on the leading edge of that warm front, in this case, New Jersey, when you're on that leading edge, you actually get rotation to happen.

It's favorable for rotation.

But you also need some other factors at play.

And the other factor we had was we had a trough of lower in the upper levels of the atmosphere.

So this was at the jet stream level, which is the river of air that separates two air masses aloft here.

So what happened was we had the trough of low pressure that was in the northeast.

And then the surface we had the warm front that was pushing north.

Both of those combined can bring a lot of rotation or spin, which could cause a tornado.

And that we probably saw on Tuesday across New Jersey.

We're hearing some reports, we can even see it there, of widespread damage.

Although not maybe what you'd see in a tornado in the Midwest, right?

We're not reaching that level of intensity.

Can you explain what is it that New Jersey just doesn't get that type of intensity or did we just luck out?

No, New Jersey typically doesn't get that kind of intensity.

We have what's called the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which is how we characterize how strong a tornado is based on the winds.

Anything, an EF2, an EF3, an EF4, EF5 in that realm, it's just hard to come by in New Jersey.

I don't have the exact number off the top of my head, but it's around 40 tornadoes at that strength since 1950, so over a period of about 75 years or less than one a year.

The reason why we don't see those strong tornadoes is because we don't have as much of a clash between warm and humid air with cold and dry air that we do in the Midwest.

Part of that is because we have the Great Lakes, which is water, which is a moderating influence, so that kind of prevents a lot of that northwesterly wind from being so relatively cool and dry.

But we also have the ocean next to us, which also helps to stabilize things a little bit.

So we do get tornadoes in New Jersey.

We average two a year, but the vast majority of them are on the weaker side.

And that's probably what we're ending up seeing with these tornadoes on our Tuesday.

But I have to ask you, we are seeing more extreme weather patterns from this intense heat that we've been seeing this summer, increased flooding in New Jersey and across the country.

As someone whose parents are from the Midwest, they tell me they came to New Jersey to escape the tornadoes.

Is this something we should expect to see more of as weather gets more extreme?

Yeah, so you know, in our climate changing world, we don't have any real evidence that points towards more tornadoes in New Jersey.

But what we have and what we will continue to see is those heavy downpours becoming heavier and more frequent.

We have seen a number of flooding events, not just yesterday, but last weekend and then over the Fourth of July weekend as well.

You know, we have seen higher rainfall intensities across the area.

Monmouth County, notably, excuse me, two weeks ago, had that flooding that helped to collapse that roof at the BJ's in Ocean Township.

So we have seen that as well.

Not so much on the tornadic side.

I more natural variability, we have seen on earth in precipitation events.

All Great analysis as always.

us from down the shore wh has receded and folks can founder and president of the American people.

Thank you so much, Joe.

Always a pleasure.

Thanks for having me, Joanna.

The political fallout is growing after Governor Mikey Sherrill revealed yesterday that a software error illegally registered about 6,600 people who were not U.S.

citizens, with about 400 of them later casting ballots.

Her office launched an investigation into how it happened, but questions remain over who knew about it and who should be held accountable.

Republicans are seizing on the disclosure ahead of November's midterm elections, once again putting New Jersey at the center of a national political fight over election security.

Here to break it all down as part of our Under the Dome series is our senior writer, Colleen O'Day.

Colleen, great to see you.

So obviously there's been a whole lot of fallout immediately after Governor Sherrill made this announcement of the 6,600 non-citizens who were registered, 400 who voted.

What do we know right now first about how the state discovered this error, which we understand was discovered under the Murphy administration, more on that later, and about how it happened?

What do we know about how it was discovered?

How it happened?

We don't know a lot about how it was discovered.

We know that the governor said that she learned of it on Wednesday of last week.

That was before the president made his address to the nation, which was talking about election, election interference, problems with voter rolls and before the Department of Homeland Security alerted the state that according to its analysis, it thinks about 35,000 noncitizens are on the New Jersey voter rolls.

We don't know how they came to that.

We don't, there's a lot we don't know.

But what we do know, all we do know is that this is something that happened between June 2023 and June of 2024.

The past administration did know about it because it was fixed.

And the governor says she learned about it on last Wednesday.

Republicans say, one, that this vindicates them, that they've been saying there were non-citizens on the voter rolls for years.

They also say they have doubts about whether or not it actually was fixed.

The governor announced yesterday that she's launching an investigation into all of this.

You as someone who covers elections understand kind of the breakdown of how it all gets reported, who's overseeing what.

Can you just help us understand when it comes to those voter rolls and who's registered, how that process plays out?

- Yeah, so where the Republicans' comments come from, and I think that they have the right at this point to kind of say, and I told you so, New Jersey changed its voter registration through the Motor Vehicles Office a few years ago from one where you opt in.

So you go to the Motor Vehicles Agency to get a new license and they ask you, "Would you like to register to vote?"

We changed from that to a, "You have to opt out."

So unless you say, "I don't want to register to vote," you get automatically registered to vote.

Again, a few years ago, this state gave non-citizens, you know, undocumented immigrants the opportunity to have a driver's license.

So what Republicans were saying at the time was, when they go to get their driver's license, how do we know that they won't be automatically registered to vote?

Now, they're supposed to say, there's a little pin pad and there's a screen that comes up, and you're supposed to say, yes, I'm eligible to vote.

I want to, you know, register me or I'm not eligible to vote.

And the question is, you know, how, how often has that been happening?

This is not the problem we're told with this, these 6600 people, but I think it's, it's very apparent to see that it is something that could wind up being confusing for some people at, you know, when you go to the motor vehicle agency.

Once that registration occurs, then that information gets sent, we're told, to county election officials who are supposed to be charged with checking it.

How often does that happen?

How well does that happen?

I'm not sure.

Something to note, we don't know yet the breakdown of how many Democrats versus Republicans versus Independents were registered.

The governor said it was all of the above.

We also don't know why the Murphy administration chose to keep this quiet.

But I have to ask when we look at the broader impacts of this, as you said, the president's been calling for changes to our election process.

Is this the push that he wanted, that he needed to possibly get the Save America Act through?

Excuse me, yes, get the SAVE Act through?

I mean it certainly is, it gives it gives him a lot of ammunition.

There's no question about that.

This is a bad look.

I mean it's it's a bad situation.

It's um you know there should not be non-citizens voting.

We know that um and and it is a terrible look that there are that many people 6,600 at least.

We're we're we're told it about 6,600.

Might there be more?

We don't know at this point.

We're told about 400 fewer than 400 voted.

Might a deeper investigation show more than that?

We don't know that yet either.

But certainly National Republicans have already kind of grabbed on to this and it's just and the president right away and through social media also grabbed onto this so it certainly does not help the cause of those who say no no no our election system is in good shape we've got great you know we've got great safeguards in place and so these things won't happen because clearly it happened here yeah some people are saying that the democrats just handed the midterms to republicans with this error congressman gotheimer goth... josh gotheimer is calling for a federal audit we see republican uh senator joe panaccio calling for a federal investigation how quickly might we see those uh moved on i mean that's that's a very good question because right now we have been arguing with the federal government um in terms of not we're not giving them our full unredacted voter rolls a lot of states or a number of blue states have not done that and the courts have upheld that to say that you know states conduct their own election states have been um states are charged with running elections but given that something happened here that that clearly was a breakdown of some sort will the justice department come in um i mean i would think they would want to certainly it certainly would help um the president's you know push for the save act the save america act or for for tougher controls on voting will they come in and do that um that's unclear right now obviously it's hard to separate politics uh when things like this happened the governor came out and said look this did not happen on my watch her exact words she was appalled by the reckless failures that allowed this to happen and the lack of transparency that existed at the time in the end do you think voters do you think the general public understands to separate this from her and her administration versus the Murphy administration where it happened?

Really good question I mean I think we're gonna have to wait and see what polling shows or when we talk to folks what you know what folks are telling us but you know if again this is she's only six months okay into her first term and if this situation is as described that this was a you know this the problem with these 6,600 people happened between 2023 and 24 certainly it is not something that was of her making and she did it sounds like come out as quickly as possible I mean she said she learned of it last Wednesday she wanted to get some information so she came out pretty quickly and came clean with it will people you know accept that will they believe that you know it's gonna we'll have to see and I think people also want to see what kind of changes are made what kind of safeguards may be put in place and that may also help to see just how well Cheryl you know fares through this crisis.

Yeah certainly a crisis one not of her making but one she will need to deal with one she's already as we can see dealing with coming out a senior writer and projects editor thanks for the analysis great to talk to you thanks very much for having me Joanna under the dome is made possible in part by the Corporation for public broadcasting a private corporation funded by the American people during the summer months many of us take the opportunity to engage in the arts in some way seeing a concert, visiting a museum, maybe even taking a night out dancing.

Well it turns out that participating in the arts is actually good for your health and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark is offering many ways for you to experience the arts this summer from their Thursday evening outdoor performances to classes during the week.

I recently spoke to NJPAC's senior vice president Sherry-Ann Butterfield about all they're offering to bring the arts into the community.

Sherry-Ann it's so great to talk to you.

Can you tell us about some of the summer offerings at MJPAC?

Would love to and thank you first thank you for having me we're just really excited to talk about what's going on at MJPAC and so there's lots of things going on.

The first thing we want to talk about are the summer camps that we're having in our arts education program.

We are having camps for numerous activities for numerous students and one is our Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass and that's happening at Drew University starting on Sunday and it's a week-long intensive camp that's being taught by classical and amazing artists basis, professional basis.

Our second camp is our TD Jazz for Teens camp that is being held at Rutgers University, Newark and that is also a week-long intensive for our lovers of jazz and that is also being taught by some really top professionals in jazz.

And then thirdly we have two camps that are split up for ages 9 through 18 for our youth who just want to be creative and explore different kind of artistry, whether it's musical theater or acting or singing and all kinds of vocals.

And so we're just really excited about those camps.

The other summer programs that we're seeing.

Let me jump in there because what we're seeing is images of the Ailey camp in Newark and I know that this year is actually the 15th year of that program.

I've had the chance to go and watch some of these students myself and it's just fantastic.

Tell us a bit about Ailey and why this 15 year program has been so successful.

It has been successful because as you saw in the clip, the young people just light up with Ailey.

The instructors are amazing.

The partnership with Alvin Ailey Dance Company has been just phenomenal over the years.

They come every year and do performances that, particularly on Mother's Day weekend, it sells out and the kids and the community just wrap their arms around this program.

On Ailey, we have Ailey Day where communities come in for all day, people of all abilities and just enthusiasm and passion for the work come in and dance with Alvin Ailey instructors and it's so important for our to provide access to dance and movement and music to our young people and our community at large and so we will continue to do that.

That is the beauty of the work that we do at MJPAC is really providing access to the arts for a positive impact on the community.

Sherri-Ann, I think you were about to tell us about one more program when I jumped in there.

I don't want to cut you off.

No worries.

I would say the other summer program that we're doing, which is really huge, is our North to Shore Festival Welcomes the World.

And so it is the way in which we have summer programming and summer concert series in Newark, Asbury Park, and Atlantic City.

And so we have large, we've had large main stage acts like Sublime and Janelle Monae and James Taylor, along with community events that feature local artists and local arts organizations and really wrapping our arms around the ways in which artistry of all forms and types and sizes needs to be celebrated.

And so while you can go to a huge concert, you can also go to a block party that is having soccer activations and kids running around and just celebrating being outside and cheering for their favorite teams all at the same time.

Well, when we talk about cheering for your favorite teams, I know Sounds of the City has been going on with NJPAC outside in the summer on Thursday nights for a long time.

When you say "Welcome to the world," what is this tied to?

Why are you referencing soccer?

-Because we are in the midst of World Cup, and so the reference to soccer -- We know soccer brings people together, just like music and art does, and so putting those together is just a beautiful thing.

And so as we've had people outside dancing for "Sounds of the City," we also have soccer activations.

We have young people who are playing, there's a, we have a green on campus now on NJPAC campus.

And just last night, there were kids playing soccer on that green.

And so the ways in which you can really combine sports and the arts is one of the things that we have really been doing this summer and just excited to continue to do it.

It brings people of different cultures, families, and it's always just a wonderful thing to see when you can bring people of different ages and abilities and thoughts and you know, it doesn't matter what your belief systems are, you'll come together for sports and for the arts and we just love that.

It is a great equalizer.

There's some interesting data about the arts and its impact on longevity, on wellness.

Can you talk to us about that and what we know about folks who participate in various forms of art?

Absolutely.

One of the things that we have been doing, particularly in social impact at NJPAC is really letting folks know things that we've instinctively known our entire lives, that we feel better when we engage in the arts, but there's actually scientific data behind that.

For example, that there has been evidence that and data that shows that engaging in the arts one to two times a month has the same protective health value as working out one to two hours a week.

Now, it is not an either or situation, but that just tells you what the arts does for our physiology, for our mental health, for our emotional health, and why we should continue to engage in the arts.

And it's a lifelong process.

We know that it reduces time to coming out of anesthesia.

If you listen to music before you, as you're going into surgery, we know that folks who engage in the tango have younger brains than those who don't.

And so once you know that information, we should really be engaging in the arts intentionally and really thinking about how we not just talk about it, fund it, and think about how we need to merge it more intentionally with health systems.

When you say engage in the arts, is that drawing?

Is that playing music?

Is it dancing?

What is it?

What does it have to be?

It's all of the above.

It can be any form of art.

It can be poetry.

It can be dancing.

It can be singing.

It can be playing your favorite instrument.

It can be creating a play.

It can just be any form.

It can be drumming.

It can be any form of movement or not.

You know, folks, writing is a form of artistry.

And so the ways in which we continue and need to continue to encourage people to continue to practice that.

It brings them joy and what joy does to our bodies, right?

It lowers instances of depression and loneliness, which we know are huge in our communities globally, not just nationally.

And so the way we need to continue to remind people to engage in the arts, particularly as folks get older.

It's not just about living longer, but it's how you're living.

What's your quality of life?

What's your quality of health?

And we see that folks who are still dancing and singing and writing, or just going to a show, right?

It just makes them feel better.

It makes them feel connected.

It makes them think about, you know, wanting to continue to live life in very positive ways because I get to do I get to engage in the arts.

And of course all of these programs through the summer engage our young people so that you get them in hooked and get them involved in the arts young and maybe they'll be lifelong participants.

Sherry-Ann Butterfield, Senior VP of Social Impact at NJPAC, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, thank you so much.

Thank you, thank you for having me.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

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It's going to be okay.

Is that... Wow.

[MUSIC PLAYING] It's going to be OK.

[LAUGHTER] [MUSIC PLAYING]