Massive Numbers of Noncitizens Do not Vote in US Elections

Forward of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump and his supporters repeatedly forged doubt on the integrity of the electoral course of. In keeping with one such declare, the previous president can’t lose a good election — any final result aside from a Trump victory can be as a result of an enormous variety of undocumented immigrants broke federal regulation and voted for his political opponents. (Trump makes use of the time period “unlawful immigrants” or “illegals” to discuss with this group of individuals.)

We boiled the claims all the way down to the next chain of occasions:

1. The Democratic Occasion, beneath the management of President Joe Biden, is transporting a massive variety of undocumented immigrants into the USA.
2. These immigrants are then instructed (or bribed) to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
3. The variety of undocumented immigrants that may supposedly vote within the election is large enough to change the result of the election. With out these supposed “unlawful” votes, Trump would win.

Every of those claims has been unfold each independently and linked with each other. Trump and his supporters use the rhetoric not simply to problem the integrity of the election, but in addition to assault the Democratic Occasion’s pro-immigration stance and its insurance policies concerning the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Nevertheless, Trump’s claims are contradicted by the next details:

1. The Democratic Occasion just isn’t transporting an enormous variety of immigrants into the USA. Though there was a big deal with the U.S.-Mexico border throughout Biden’s presidency, Snopes has repeatedly disproved claims that the Democratic Occasion is “importing immigrants” and providing them with benefits.
2. It’s unlawful for any noncitizen, undocumented immigrant or in any other case, to vote in U.S. federal elections. The punishments for doing so are extreme and embrace deportation.
3. There are numerous protections in place that forestall noncitizens from voting. Due to these protections, noncitizen voting hardly ever occurs — definitely not on the frequency required to sway the outcomes of a presidential election.

Trump Has Made Comparable Claims for 10 Years

Snopes discovered that Trump has publicly said or implied that undocumented immigrants had been voting in elections for at the least a decade. In a tweet from October 2014, even earlier than he introduced his run for president in 2015, Trump claimed “election officers” mentioned there have been no protections stopping undocumented immigrants from voting in elections, which he mentioned was “very dangerous (unfair) for Republicans.” He didn’t cite any sources. 

In the course of the 2016 presidential race, Trump made related feedback. As an illustration, he questioned the security of same-day voter registration and cited a extremely criticized set of information to assert that 14% of noncitizens in the United States were registered to vote.

In 2020, Trump famously claimed there was an enormous quantity of voter fraud and refused to concede the election to Biden. Though his allegations of fraud throughout that election cycle didn’t deal with immigration, his efforts to sow seeds of doubt concerning the integrity of the U.S. electoral course of took maintain.

In the course of the 2022 midterm elections, some Trump supporters who believed he received the 2020 election grew to become ballot watchers who intensely scrutinized the election course of. In keeping with reporting from Reuters, a number of states recorded incidents of ballot watchers intimidating voters and election staff, which is against the law. Moreover, the Republican Nationwide Committee established a voter integrity program to make sure that the 2022 midterm outcomes had been honest. 

By December 2023, Trump was telling supporters at an Iowa rally to “guard the vote.” In April 2024, Trump’s marketing campaign introduced it could accomplice with the RNC to proceed its voter integrity program within the 2024 election, with the express intent, within the marketing campaign’s phrases, to “cease Democrat attempts to circumvent rules.” The allegation that undocumented immigrants are illegally registering to vote is just one thought the Trump marketing campaign has used to justify these efforts.

The claims unfold rapidly, nevertheless, and had been shared by distinguished figures like X owner Elon Musk. In September 2024, Reuters reported that Trump’s authorized crew had already filed lawsuits that may very well be used to problem the election on the grounds of noncitizen voting in 4 of the seven swing states anticipated to determine the election.

The Reality

The actual fact of the matter is solely that noncitizens hardly ever vote in U.S. elections, one thing the Cato Institute, a conservative suppose tank, reported on in 2020.

A 2015 analysis of the survey Trump later used to assert that 14% of noncitizens in the USA had been registered to vote discovered that the end result was merely attributable to human error — that’s, all of the “noncitizens” who marked themselves as registered to vote had been virtually definitely U.S. residents who by chance recorded themselves as noncitizens when taking the survey. 

In 2016 and 2017, the Brennan Institute for Justice, a liberal nonprofit group, investigated 42 jurisdictions throughout 12 states to search out out whether or not there was any fact to the claims of voter fraud. Of the ten jurisdictions throughout the nation with the best inhabitants of noncitizens, the survey checked out eight of them. 

In keeping with the institute’s report, voters forged 23.5 million votes in these jurisdictions within the election. The institute counted 30 circumstances of suspected noncitizen voting that required additional investigation. That is an incidence price of 0.0001% — lower than the percentages of being struck by lightning in your life.

Below federal regulation, states are required to keep up and audit voter rolls usually to make sure an election’s integrity. For instance, the state of Georgia, anticipated to play a essential position within the 2024 election, audited its voter rolls in 2022. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, introduced that the state discovered 1,634 circumstances through which a noncitizen tried to register to vote between 1997 to 2022, about 65 per yr. However based on the report, not one of the people in these circumstances ever formally voted, due to the present protections that safeguard the voter registration course of.

Registration Protections

With a purpose to illustrate the quite a few protections in place to stop noncitizens from voting in U.S. federal elections, let’s undergo the steps an immigrant residing within the nation illegally must take to be able to forged only one poll and have it counted.

First, this individual must enter the USA with out paperwork and apply for political asylum. Throughout this course of, the person’s identify and different figuring out info can be added to a federal database that marked them as a noncitizen.

Second, this individual would wish to use to register to vote (besides in North Dakota, which verifies voter eligibility utilizing a strict voter ID regulation). All 49 states with voter registration require the voter to attest beneath penalty of regulation that they’re a U.S. citizen, that they’re over the age of 18 and that they’re a resident of the state they want to vote in. 

These registration varieties require candidates to offer a considerable amount of private info. That is a problem for immigrants dwelling within the nation illegally, who could also be afraid the federal government might use that figuring out info to arrest or deport them. On this case, these fears are legitimate: Any noncitizen discovered responsible of such a criminal offense would face jail time or deportation. 

In the course of the voter registration course of, the immigrant must show they’re a resident of the state they reside in, mostly utilizing a driver’s license or Social Safety quantity. With a purpose to apply for that documentation, the immigrant must present extra figuring out info to the federal government alongside immigration paperwork that confirms their standing as a noncitizen. At this level within the course of, there would now be a number of governmental databases that checklist this individual as a noncitizen. 

Then, every voter registration software is reviewed and cross-checked in opposition to driver’s license and federal immigration databases from the Division of Homeland Safety to scan for any discrepancies. If election officers have any suspicions, they’ll flag the appliance for additional overview. That course of requires much more private info from the voter. If there are nonetheless questions, election officers can at all times deny the appliance.

There are just a few jurisdictions in the USA, together with San Francisco and Washington, D.C., the place noncitizens are allowed to vote, however solely in some native elections, not federal elections. In San Francisco, for example, noncitizens are allowed to vote in class board elections solely. Nevertheless, noncitizens in these jurisdictions should register to vote utilizing a particular type in a particular method. Because of this such noncitizens are added to the voter rolls with the express information that they’re noncitizen voters, and their ballots will be tracked as such.

All of those are extremely efficient — once more, Georgia’s 2022 audit discovered that out of the 1,634 circumstances through which a noncitizen was suspected of trying to register to vote, not one vote was ever forged. As Gerry Cohen, a member of the Board of Elections in Wake County, North Carolina, informed Snopes: “There is a massive distinction between registering to vote and really voting.” 

Protections on the Polling Place

Taylor Kinnerup, communications director for the Maricopa County recorder’s workplace in Arizona, added an extra distinction: “There’s additionally an enormous distinction between casting a vote and that vote being counted.”

In October 2024, posts on X surfaced alleging that the Texas secretary of state had instructed ballot staff to permit voters who offered an ID indicating they had been a noncitizen to vote as normal. The declare rapidly morphed into the overall concept that Texas was permitting noncitizens to vote. That is unfaithful, due to the protections in place after a poll is forged.

In a directive “to all election officers,” Texas Director of Elections Christina Adkins informed ballot staff to acknowledge the noncitizen ID when checking for a legitimate voter registration, however identified that these voters would possibly simply be new U.S. residents who had not but up to date their driver’s licenses to replicate their citizenship standing. Denying such eligible voters the precise to forged a poll can be a transparent instance of unlawful voter suppression. The directive beneficial that these voters current a distinct type of picture ID if doable to keep away from the problem. Regardless, the work executed to make sure that these voters are eligible is carried out earlier than the poll is counted.

After arriving at a polling place, voters are required to offer their identify (and relying on the jurisdiction, their ID). These names are then checked in opposition to registration data (once more, besides in North Dakota). If there is a match, a poll is printed for the voter. The voter then indicators, affirming beneath penalty of regulation that they perceive the penalties of casting a fraudulent poll. 

The voter’s signature is part of the verification course of. Kinnerup mentioned that Maricopa County ballot staff evaluate the signature to the voter’s different recorded signatures earlier than the poll is opened and counted. Similar to with voter registration, an election official can flag the poll for additional inspection if they’ve any doubts concerning the validity of the voter’s signature.

Below Part 302 of the Help America Vote Act, signed into regulation by then-President George W. Bush in 2002, voters who should not on a voter roll however attest that they’re an eligible voter can nonetheless forged a provisional poll in a federal election, one thing that may initially appear regarding. However even on this case, there are nonetheless protections. A provisional ballot is counted provided that the voter’s identification, citizenship and residency will be confirmed within the days following the election. Kinnerup defined the method utilizing an instance she mentioned Arizona usually offers with.

“California is a deep blue state, and a few Republicans in Southern California might need the concept to forged a poll in Arizona as a result of it is a extra aggressive election,” she mentioned. “So there are Republicans in Southern California who drive throughout the border to Yuma County, Arizona, stroll right into a polling place and ask for a poll.” 

By regulation, election staff are required to offer them with one. Nevertheless, to ensure that these ballots to rely, these voters would wish to offer identification to verify their citizenship and residency. Their California driver’s licenses can be a purple flag for ballot staff, indicating that these voters weren’t Arizona residents, and the ballots wouldn’t be counted after investigating the voters’ credentials.

The SAVE Act

Some Republicans have claimed these precautions are nonetheless not sufficient. In April 2024, Republican Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson met with Trump to debate issues of voter fraud and noncitizen voting. The invoice ensuing from that dialog, the SAVE Act, would have mandated that these wishing to register to vote present documented proof of U.S. citizenship. Because of this to be able to register to vote, voters must submit their beginning certificates — a doc that 9% of Individuals do not have rapid entry to, based on analysis from the Brennan Center. Though the SAVE Act handed the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives, the Senate refused to carry a vote on the invoice.

In September 2024, dealing with the specter of a government shutdown, Trump posted on his social media platform, Reality Social, calling for Republicans to reject any stopgap spending invoice that didn’t embrace “absolute assurances on election safety,” as a result of Democrats had been supposedly trying to “stuff” voter registrations with undocumented immigrants. The SAVE Act was briefly resurrected at that time, however Democrats objected to its inclusion within the spending invoice. Finally, Johnson partnered with Democrats to move a invoice that didn’t embrace the SAVE Act to be able to keep away from a authorities shutdown.

It’s unclear whether or not Republicans will proceed to pursue additional laws on the federal stage to require proof of citizenship to register to vote. On the state stage, based on the Brennan Center and the Voting Rights Lab, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire and North Dakota have handed legal guidelines for the reason that 2020 election that aimed to deal with nonexistent noncitizen voting utilizing documented proof of citizenship.

A Transient Observe on the Democratic Occasion’s Immigration Platform

A part of what made Trump’s declare of noncitizen voting stick is that it mixed two of his favourite targets: election integrity and the U.S.-Mexico border. A lot of this story has centered on disproving Trump’s claims about election integrity. Nevertheless, it is usually vital to look at what precisely Trump and his allies declare when criticizing or attacking Kamala Harris in that regard.

The next post on X is an efficient instance:

The put up claims that in a city corridor with Latino voters, Harris mentioned she wished to permit “unlawful immigrants to turn out to be residents who will then have the ability to vote.”

That is an evidence of the Democratic Occasion’s immigration platform and a press release concerning the privileges of United States citizenship, not an admission that Harris goes to rig the election. Harris is stating a fact: that undocumented immigrants in the USA at the moment would not have a path to citizenship. Though it’s true that giving undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship would ultimately enable them, as naturalized residents, to vote in U.S. federal elections, going via that course of would possible take a very long time. In keeping with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, lawful everlasting residents are required to reside in the USA for 5 years earlier than they’re eligible to use for naturalized citizenship.

Conclusion

Snopes discovered no proof {that a} important variety of noncitizens are trying to register to vote within the 2024 election. After explaining the massive variety of precautions in place to cease noncitizens from voting, each the election officers we spoke to mentioned it’s extremely unlikely {that a} noncitizen would have the ability to efficiently forged a vote in the event that they tried, opposite to Trump’s claims

Cohen, the Wake County Board of Elections member, mentioned he felt baffled by the dimensions of the claims. “The thought that a big physique of persons are doing that is silly,” he mentioned. “It is onerous sufficient to get individuals to vote as is.”

Kinnerup, from the Maricopa County recorder’s workplace, mentioned she thought individuals had been believing Trump’s claims due to a current change in Arizonan politics. The demographics of Arizona have modified dramatically in recent times, and the media’s wrestle to foretell the winner of Arizona within the final election most likely made some voters really feel like one thing had gone unsuitable. 

However she additionally wished to remind voters that the ballot staff weren’t the enemy. “Everybody, Democrat and Republican, desires the election to be honest,” she mentioned. “There isn’t any such factor as an ideal election. However 2020 taught us quite a bit — to organize for the surprising.”

Sources