Are non–U.S. citizens stealing the vote?

It has been almost a hundred years since the United States allowed noncitizens to vote in national elections. In 1900, roughly half of existing states and territories allowed noncitizen voting, but by 1926, nearly every state had banned it. Now, amid record numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. southern border, former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson say it’s time for the country to crack down again on noncitizen voting. Johnson promised to bring forward a new bill to require voters to prove they are U.S. citizen.

“As the entity that is responsible for regulating federal elections, Congress has this responsibility,” Johnson said, standing beside Trump at his Florida resort home, Mar-a-Lago. “We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur, especially when the threat of fraud is growing with every single illegal immigrant that crosses that border.”

What is the current law?

The federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 created a standardized voter registration form for all states. Applicants must check a box stating they are citizens under penalty of perjury. Most states then verify the information against other data sources such as the Social Security Administration. Congress also passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which makes noncitizen voting a felony punishable by hefty fines or up to five years in prison. It only applies to federal elections. Often called the “motor voter bill,” the NVRA requires most states to offer voter registration at departments of motor vehicles.

Does the government verify the registration info?

Most states double-check registrations against the information on a voter’s driver’s license. And most voter registration forms also require personal identification information such as the driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number. While the Social Security Administration can determine citizenship with certainty, most departments of motor vehicles only require registrants to check a box to verify their citizenship (though it is also a felony to present false information on these forms). Roughly a third of states verify signatures and match ballot information to voter records, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Last year, a federal court ruled that a former U.S. Election Assistance Commission official violated the NVRA in 2016 when he allowed some states to require proof of citizenship as part of voter registration. Alabama, Georgia, and Kansas had statewide laws requiring documentation of citizenship in addition to checking the box on the federal form. In the few years the Kansas law was in effect, up to 14 percent of new voter registrants were blocked. But the League of Women Voters said that many of those blocked from registering were citizens who did not have access to their birth certificates or other documentation.

Are noncitizens voting?

Most states still bar noncitizens from voting in nonfederal elections, but there are exceptions for some local races. In 2021, San Francisco allowed noncitizen parents and guardians of resident students to vote in school board elections. The District of Columbia recently passed a law allowing noncitizens to vote in any nonfederal election if they have been residents for at least 30 days. Towns in Maryland and Vermont allow people who are not citizens to cast ballots in local elections, but a state appeals court ruled a similar 2022 law in New York City unconstitutional in February. Evidence of noncitizens voting in federal elections is rare. In 2022, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger identified 1,634 noncitizens who filed voter registration forms, but his office blocked them before the midterm elections.

How does it affect presidential elections?

For the most part, noncitizen voting is rare in federal elections. As of March, seven states stipulate that only citizens can vote in state or local elections. Federal law threatens not only perjury charges but also visa denials and deportation for noncitizens who vote illegally. The Brennan Center studied 42 jurisdictions in 2016 and found 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting out of 23.5 million votes. The Heritage Foundation’s voter fraud tracker shows 24 convictions for noncitizen voting between 2003 and 2022.

So why bring it up?

Trump claimed in 2016 that nonnaturalized immigrants voted against him. He set up a voting integrity commission after he won the election. That commission disbanded in 2018 without finding evidence of fraud. Then in 2020, Trump and administration officials said at rallies and in interviews that no states verify the citizenship of voters before a federal election. Last week, he said that Democrats caused an immigration crisis at the southern border, partially for the purpose of boosting Democratic votes. Johnson agreed. Since President Joe Biden took office, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has reported roughly 8.5 million encounters at the northern and southern borders. But it is unclear how many of these stayed in the United States. It is also not known how many more migrants evade federal agents while crossing.

“We believe one of the reasons for this open border ... is because they want to turn these people into voters,” Johnson said. “[Democrats] engineered it to be that way. And among the problems that flows from this open border catastrophe is directly related to this threat to our election integrity.”

Johnson called the NVRA ineffective because it does not require proof of citizenship at the time a voter registers. He argued that the Biden administration encourages illegal migrants to register for welfare benefits, and those offices also encourage voter registration. In a year of likely close congressional and presidential elections, he said that any instances of noncitizen voting could tilt results toward the Democrats.

What is Johnson proposing?

Johnson said he will bring up a bill to mandate proof of citizenship soon. He has not yet released details of how it would work. At Mar-a-Lago, Johnson only said the bill would create new safeguards, require states to remove noncitizens from voter rolls, and boost database access between election offices, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration. 

Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., sponsored the NO VOTE for Non-Citizens Act last summer. This week, the House Judiciary Committee approved it and placed it on the floor calendar.