Preventing non-citizens of the United States from voting has again become a focus of Republicans’ ongoing efforts to protect “election integrity,” even though non-citizens are rarely involved in voter fraud.
Ahead of November’s presidential election, Republican lawmakers in Congress and in states are aiming to keep non-citizens out of the polls. They are taking advantage of state constitutional amendments and modern laws that require citizenship verification to vote. Noncitizens can vote in a few local elections in some states, but are already barred from voting in state or federal elections.
Some Republicans argue that preventing noncitizens from voting — long a bugbear in conservative politics — reduces the risk of fraud and increases trust in American democracy. But even some on the right believe these efforts go too far, stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and unfounded fears of widespread fraud, all to boost voter turnout among the GOP base.
As Republican members of Congress move to require documentation proving U.S. citizenship when registering for federal elections, voters in at least four states will decide on ballot measures in November that would amend their state constitutions to make clear that only U.S. citizens can vote in state and local elections allowed to vote elections.
In the last six years, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota and Ohio have all changed their state constitutions.
In Kentucky – which is currently considering a constitutional amendment along with Idaho, Iowa and Wisconsin – voting by non-citizens will not be tolerated, said Republican Senator Damon Thayer, who voted in February to place the amendment on the November ballot . Five Democrats between the two chambers supported the Republican-authored bill, while 16 others disagreed.
“There is a lot of concern here about the Biden administration’s open borders policy,” Thayer, the caucus’s majority leader, told Stateline. “People see it on the news every day about groups of illegals pouring across the border. And they come with concerns about election integrity.”
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson raised similar concerns last month when he announced modern legislation despite existing laws 1996 ban – This would make it illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. During a trip to Florida to meet with former President Donald Trump, the Louisiana Republican said it was reasonable to require proof of citizenship.
“If there are enough votes, it could have an impact on the presidential election,” he said as he stood in front of Trump at the presumptive presidential nominee’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur, especially when the risk of fraud increases with every single illegal immigrant who crosses this border.”
That rhetoric is rooted in fear that the U.S. is changing demographics and becoming more diverse as its nonwhite population increases, said longtime Republican strategist Mike Madrid. While this political strategy has helped bolster support among GOP voters in the past, he questions whether it will be politically effective in the long run.
“No problem is solved here,” said Madrid, whose forthcoming book “The Latino Century” describes the group’s growing voter turnout. “It’s all politics. It’s about stoking fears and angering the base.”
In some elections across the country, non-citizens vote, but not in the way many might think.
Where non-citizens vote
In 16 cities and towns In California, Maryland, and Vermont (along with the District of Columbia), non-citizens are allowed to vote in some local elections, such as for school board or city council. Voters in Santa Ana, California, will decide in November about whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote in citywide elections.
In 2022, the New York State Supreme Court dejected New York City’s 2021 ordinance allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections violated the state constitution. Advocates have argued that people should be able to vote on local issues that affect their children and the community, regardless of their citizenship status.
During the first 150 years of the United States, 40 states allowed non-citizens to vote in elections at various times. This came to an end in the 1920s when nativism grew and states began granting the right to vote exclusively to U.S. citizens.
The number of non-citizen voters was relatively tiny, and these voters are never allowed to vote in statewide or national elections. Local election officials maintain separate voter lists to keep noncitizens out of statewide databases.
In Vermont’s March local election, 62 non-citizens voted in Burlington, 13 in Montpelier and 11 in Winooski a faction of the total votes.
In Takoma Park, Maryland, of the 347 non-citizens registered to vote in 2017, only 72 cast a ballot the latest data provided by the city. And in San Francisco, 36 non-citizens registered to vote in 2020, 31 of whom voted.
This is all politics. It’s about stoking fears and angering the base.
– Mike Madrid, Republican strategist and author
Voter turnout among non-citizens is low for two reasons, said Ron Hayduk, a political science professor at San Francisco State University and one of them leading scholars in this area. Many non-citizens in these jurisdictions are unaware they have the right to vote, and many fear deportation or legal problems, he said.
Registration forms in jurisdictions that allow non-citizens to vote in local elections acknowledge the risks. In San Francisco, local election officials to warn That federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other agencies could have access to the city’s registration lists and advise residents to consult an immigration attorney before registering to vote.
“The immigrants were very excited about this new right to vote, they wanted to vote, but many of them ended up not registering and voting because they were worried,” Hayduk said.
Although some non-citizens vote in a few local elections, they do not participate illegally to any significant extent in state and federal elections.
Although there is room for legitimate debate about whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote at the local level, there is no widespread voter fraud among non-citizens at the national level, said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
In 2020, federal investigators calculated 19 non-citizens for voting in the North Carolina election. A national one Database The study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, shows that there have been fewer than 100 cases of voter fraud involving non-citizens since 2002 current count from the Washington Post.
Trump continues to falsely claim that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election and that he had more popular votes in 2016. He has claimed without evidence that voter fraud was to blame, including in some cases by non-citizens.
With illegal immigration Near the top Given the substantial issues facing voters heading into November, Trump and his movement sense the public momentum to link immigration concerns to their ongoing electoral claims, Olson said.
It’s a way to keep Democrats at arm’s length by falsely accusing them of allowing immigrants to come into the country illegally so they can vote, he added.
“The idea that there is some kind of conspiracy by an entire major political party is just remarkably devoid of evidence,” he said.
Fight against “the left”
Although voter fraud is not widespread among non-citizens, states should still build safeguards into their voting systems to guard against the possibility, said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican.
Raffensperger was a key supporter of a Peach State law requiring documentation to verify voters’ citizenship status. In 2022, he announced an internal audit of Georgia’s voter rolls over the past 25 years found that 1,634 non-citizens had attempted to register as voters, but not a single one of them had cast a ballot.
“I will continue to fight the left on this issue so that only American citizens decide American elections,” Raffensperger wrote in a statement to Stateline.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia are actively considering legislation that would add November ballot initiatives to prevent non-citizens from voting. These bills are at various stages of the legislative process, with many already passed by one chamber.
During a committee hearing last week, Missouri Republican Sen. Ben Brown said the state’s constitutional language was vague enough to allow cities to let non-citizens vote. When presenting his billHe cited California’s parallel constitutional text and the way cities like Oakland and San Francisco allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Most state constitutions have similar language regarding eligibility to vote. They state that “any” US citizen 18 years of age or older can vote. The proposed changes would typically change one word to emphasize that “only” U.S. citizens can vote, eliminating an ambiguity in the text that has left cities in several states leeway to allow non-citizens to participate in elections .
It’s a “pretty simple” solution, said Jack Tomczak, vice president of public affairs for Americans for Citizen Voting, a group that works with state legislatures to amend their constitutions to allow only citizens to vote in state and local elections.
“It weakens the voice of the citizens of this country,” Tomczak said. “And it also dilutes the nature of citizenship.”
