Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?
The answer, of course, is yes, they do. That is the subject of the most recent episode of The Drill Down, featuring co-host Eric Eggers, whose 2018 book FRAUD examined the history and various ways that election fraud has occurred in U.S. elections historically.
A recent academic study based on surveys done for the Cooperative Congressional Election Studies showed evidence that non-citizens are voting in our elections in meaningful numbers. As many as 27 percent of non-citizens surveyed were registered to vote, and as many as 13 percent of them actually cast ballots.
In response, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), introduced legislation requiring proof of citizenship before registering to vote.
Peter Schweizer and Eggers note that the influx of illegal immigrants (an estimated 16 million since President Joe Biden took office) means that the potential pool of illegal voters rises to between 1 million and 2.7 million ballots.
The problem is that in many states proof of citizenship is not required, apart from the registrant attesting on paper that he or she is a U.S. citizen. The new bill would require proof be shown at the time of registration. An additional problem is that state registrars do not even have access to a national database that would confirm citizenship and current registration status of those registering to vote, and the voter registration drives that are done by advocacy groups do not require them to prove it either.
Eggers’s book included a study done of the voter rolls of 32 states, which for example showed through cross-referencing that more than 4,000 votes were cast by voters in two different states in the same election.
Election integrity issues came to the fore during the 2020 election when many states relaxed their rules on mail-in balloting because of the COVID pandemic, which made verification procedures even more difficult.
The Drill Down has reported on efforts by the Biden administration to use federal offices in key swing states to undertake voter registration drives among the constituents they serve. Peter and Eric have also welcomed election integrity advocates like Catherine Engelbrecht of “True the Vote,” whose group has also documented problems with voter registration schemes.
Eggers notes that a key Biden administration official in their efforts to spur voter registration is Tom Perez, a political activist who previously ran a group called “Casa Maryland” that advocated for voting rights for non-citizens in that state.
Schweizer and Eggers close the show with a list of possible reforms that would make voting more secure, trustworthy, and fair.
- There must be a national database where states send their voter roll data to be cross-referenced.
- Citizenship data should be available to local election officials.
- Ease of voter registration should not allow immigrant non-citizens to register, as some states have permitted with so-called Motor Voter laws.
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