during 2024 presidential electionformer president donald trump His associates, including the owner of Elon MuskPromoted the baseless conspiracy theory that undocumented immigrants are allowed to enter the United States. vote.
Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud by undocumented immigrants are not new. After failing to run for re-election in 2020, he claimed that tens of thousands of non-citizens had voted in the battleground state of Arizona, a claim that election officials there disputed. President Trump made similar claims about illegal voting in 2014.
Voter fraud by non-citizens, including legal and illegal immigrants, is extremely rare, and experts say studies have found no evidence of widespread voting by non-citizens in previous elections. Here are the key facts you need to know ahead of the 2024 general election.
Undocumented immigrants rarely vote
Several studies and surveys have concluded that there have been very few instances in modern history where non-citizens have voted in a federal election.
After the 2016 election, an analysis by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found 30 cases of questionable non-citizen voting reported by election officials out of 23.5 million votes cast in the 42 jurisdictions reviewed.
A Washington Post analysis of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s database of voter fraud cases filed by prosecutors found that over a 20-year period from 2002 to 2023, there were only 85 cases involving allegations of non-citizen voting. Appeared.
According to Alice Clapman, senior voting rights attorney at the Brennan Center, data shows that voting by non-citizens is unlikely to affect the outcome of this November’s election.
“If you look at the differences between candidates in presidential elections, they are much larger than the most inflated figures for the small number of non-citizens who turn out to have voted,” Klapman said.
There are severe penalties for non-citizens who attempt to vote illegally.
It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. Violators risk not only deportation but also fines and up to a year in federal prison. Additionally, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship when registering to vote can result in up to five years in prison.
When a non-citizen commits voter fraud, a government record is created of their actions. That means there’s a chance you’ll get caught.
According to the Brennan Center, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers are instructed during the naturalization process to check public voter files to see if applicants attempted to vote.
“If someone is undocumented, you don’t want to do anything that might draw the attention of authorities or jeopardize their status if they have temporary status,” Clappman said.
People must prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote.
When registering to vote, individuals must prove their U.S. citizenship on a federal voter registration form under penalty of perjury.
The form does not require documentation or proof of citizenship, but federal law requires voters to provide at least their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number to register in all states.
Some non-citizens who are authorized to work in the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security may have a Social Security number, and unauthorized immigrants may obtain driver’s licenses in 19 states, according to the federal agency.
However, voter registration applicants’ information is checked against state and federal databases to ensure non-citizens are kept off the voter rolls, according to David Becker, election law contributor for CBS News and executive director of the Center of Election Innovation and Research. They say they do.
“If you have a driver’s license number and it turns out you have a green card, the DMV has it,” Becker said. “Are people having a hard time? Yes, but that’s why Republican states are finding incredibly low numbers when they try to find votes from non-citizens.”
Ineligible voters are routinely removed from state voter rolls.
The federal government required states to regularly maintain them. voter list After passage of the National Voter Registration Act in 1993. This maintenance process removes ineligible voters, often those who have died or moved.
States also attempt to flag non-citizens who may have been added to voter rolls by mistake. As part of this process, some states verify citizenship by matching voter information against databases, such as the federal SAVE program, which can verify U.S. citizenship.
It takes years for immigrants to become naturalized citizens.
Trump and Musk have repeatedly hinted that immigrants entering the U.S. could quickly benefit under a Biden administration. vote They qualify in time for the 2024 election, but this is misleading.
Under federal law, non-citizens must reside in the United States as lawful permanent residents (green card holders) for at least five years (or three years if married to a U.S. citizen) before applying for citizenship.
Applicants must meet certain eligibility requirements to receive a green card in the first place, and the vast majority of applicants do not receive a green card, according to an analysis of federal data by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank.
In recent years, the Biden-Harris administration has implemented more restrictive policies. asylum rules This has made it more difficult for immigrants to seek asylum and ultimately obtain citizenship.
