Leading Republicans have signaled that if former President Donald Trump loses, they will claim that enough non-citizens voted illegally to influence the outcome, but there is no evidence that that happened. Even though it’s not there.
President Trump said during a Sept. 10 debate that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) threatened to shut down the government over legislation that would address the issue, and that Republicans were targeting it at the state level. said.
“We are entering an era where electoral margins are very thin,” Prime Minister Johnson said at a press conference on September 10. “If we allow thousands of illegal aliens to participate in elections in the wrong places, It could change the composition of Congress and influence presidential elections.”
According to the data, non-citizen voting is virtually non-existent. A study by the Brennan Center for Justice, a democracy and civil rights watchdog, found that in 2016, officials found that 30 of the 23.5 million votes cast in 42 jurisdictions were likely noncitizens. It turned out that he had expressed his concerns. This accounts for 0.0001% of the vote. An analysis of legal actions related to election conduct by the conservative Heritage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2023, non-citizens voted in just 25 cases.
Nevertheless, Republican governors and officials in charge of elections in several states keep the topic front and center. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), for example, requires polling places to post signs in English and Spanish warning non-citizens that voting is illegal.
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Conservative legal groups are suing state election officials to remove people they suspect are not citizens in what they say is an effort to prevent illegal voting. would be in violation of federal law prohibiting the removal of .
Voting rights experts say Republicans are hyping the issue now to sow doubt about the election results if they lose.
Jess Marsden, general counsel at Protect Democracy, said: “The fact that we are hearing this voice so loudly from so many different quarters means it has the potential to be successful in shaping attitudes heading into this autumn’s elections. “It tells us that it’s part of a collaborative strategy that they believe is in place.” A non-profit organization working to counter authoritarianism.
“It is clear that this is a coordinated political messaging campaign aimed at undermining our electoral system and planting the ground for challenges to the election results if things don’t go our way.” said Voting Advocacy Director Jonathan Diaz. The center is a democracy group. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s so much talk about this now that we’re getting closer to the election.”
“They’re trying to get them to vote.”
President Trump has long said, without evidence, that immigrants are being allowed into the country illegally to vote for Democrats and that local election officials are turning a blind eye.
“They don’t even speak English. They don’t even know, in effect, what country they’re in. And these people are trying to get them to vote, that It’s their reason.” We are allowing them to enter our country. ”
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this article.
Prime Minister Johnson will pass a bill in Congress called the SAVE Act, which would ban non-citizens from voting and require citizenship checks before voting, unless Democrats, who support the must-pass funding bill, pass a continuing resolution. He threatened to shut down the government.
The bill would not take effect until the 2024 election, and federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting. The House Republican majority passed the SAVE Act in July after Johnson first raised the idea of passing the bill at an April press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion, but the Democratic-controlled Senate has not considered it.
President Trump has publicly called on Republicans to shut down the government unless Democrats agree to attach the bill to their spending bill, but Congressional leaders are currently refusing to include the SAVE Act on Dec. 20. An agreement was reached to provide funding to the government until the end of the day.
Johnson’s staff referred USA TODAY to his public comments on the bill.
Democrats argue that the very few documented cases of non-citizens voting shows that the current system is already working, and that proof of citizenship requirements ensure that all Americans are able to vote. They claim it will be more difficult. Many people cannot easily provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport. In many states, a driver’s license is not proof of citizenship, and married women can have problems if their current name does not match their birth certificate.
Most voting rights experts say there is no evidence to support Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson’s claims that noncitizens are voting in large numbers.
“We know that non-citizen registration is virtually non-existent, and the issue of non-citizen voting is non-existent by any stretch of the imagination,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. said.
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of election law initiatives at the Heritage Foundation, disagrees, saying data shows that many election integrity monitors count the number of convictions rather than the number of noncitizens on the rolls. He said this number is very low because it depends on He said the investigation found that local prosecutors and the Justice Department were reluctant to prosecute noncitizens on voter rolls.
“They say, ‘Oh, there are only a few cases of aliens who have been convicted of doing this.’ But what they’re missing is that election officials have found aliens on the list Even so, these cases are rarely investigated or prosecuted,” Spakovsky said.
Mr. Johnson and other Republicans have argued that even a small number of non-citizen voters is too many, and Mr. Spakovsky agreed.
“Could it affect the presidential election? Probably not, but Congressional elections, state elections, town council elections, county commission elections are often decided by a very small number of people. ” he said.
State officials emphasize non-referendum vote
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has opened a special email account for reporting suspected election law violations, citing the state’s growing non-citizen population.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry (R) recently signed an executive order requiring state agencies that provide voter registration forms to include written disclaimers prohibiting noncitizens from voting.
In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law earlier this month requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID at the ballot box. The law will not take effect until after the November general election.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told a congressional committee last week that enforcement is needed to keep non-citizen voting rare, citing the state’s numbers, which are slightly higher than national poll numbers. Ta. He said his office recently identified nearly 600 noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls, which include about 8 million registrants.
“We found that 135 people have already voted this year. We found that another 400 people are registered but have not yet voted. And the idea that it’s already illegal? Plane hijacking is illegal, but it does not exclude the TSA,” LaRose said.
At this point, large-scale deletion of voter rolls is unlikely. Federal law prohibits major changes to voter rolls within 90 days of an election. You can make individual changes. For example, someone convicted of a felony this month could be removed from office by Election Day.
More: Georgia election board passes controversial hand-counting rules: Here’s what you need to know
“Why now?”
It is already a crime to register or vote as a non-citizen in state or federal elections. Violating the 1996 federal law can result in fines, up to a year in prison, and possible deportation. Although many jurisdictions do not require proof of citizenship for registration, voter registration and ballot mailing leave a paper trail that elected officials are legally required to review periodically. I am. In most states, the names of those who register to vote are made public, allowing for additional scrutiny.
In recent weeks, the Texas attorney general and Alabama secretary of state announced that they had identified thousands of potential noncitizens on their voter registration rolls.
But Diaz said a closer look historically shows that many potential non-citizens are recently naturalized citizens, and if alerted by state officials, they can file documents with elections offices. He said he would be given a limited time to prove his right to vote by bringing the documents with him.
“This is basically people who are legally in the U.S., going through the process of becoming U.S. citizens, and who are legally ineligible to vote just to score cheap vulnerable points at the expense of vulnerable people.” It’s targeting people who are immigrants,” Diaz said.
“The more insidious problem here is that many of these officials know that it is too late to maintain this list,” Diaz said.
“They could have done this over the summer when we were outside of that 90-day window, but they waited until the 90-day period started and made all these claims and then told election officials and allowed them to blame the federal government.” “Look, we told them about all these illegal voters.” They didn’t do anything about it. The election was illegal and that’s why we can’t trust the results,” Diaz said.
Becker asked why he was raising this issue now, when it was too late to address such a pressing issue, not when President Trump was in the White House or when Republicans held the House majority. He said it is important to ask whether this is the case. For the past two years.
“Ask why now? And the answer you’ll find is because they want to stir up anger and violence and donations in a post-election world where the candidate loses. That’s very dangerous.” he said.
Read more: Democrats propose voting rights bill to counter Georgia election changes and more
The lawsuit is already in court
The Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, Trump allies and Republican state attorneys general have warned voters in four of the seven battleground states expected to decide the race, including broad challenges to their citizenship status. It has filed at least eight lawsuits challenging the registration process. Number of voters in Arizona.
The Arizona lawsuit filed by Trump-aligned advocacy group America First Legal allows about 42,000 voters, or about 1% of the state, to register without providing proof of citizenship. It seeks to require each county to survey voters who have been identified. Many were registered to vote before state laws changed to require proof of citizenship.
Arizona requires proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in state elections, but not in federal elections.
Mr Marsden said the cacophony of arguments from officials and Republican advocacy groups was creating a “surround sound” effect. She says she must think the reason the results aren’t reliable is because they resonate with conservative voters.
“As we look into the fall, I fully expect to hear these lies about immigration and voting from local officials who threaten to not certify the results of local elections they don’t like,” she said.
Voters in eight states will have the issue on their ballots in the form of a constitutional amendment declaring that only citizens can vote.
Voters in Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin changed existing constitutional provisions that allowed “all” or “all” citizens to vote, to “only” citizens. It will consider an amendment approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature to replace the language with the ability to vote. Vote. In Idaho and Kentucky, the amendments state that “persons who are not citizens of the United States may not vote.”
Brad Raffensperger is Georgia’s Secretary of State. Previous versions used the wrong title