In anticipation of another tight presidential election, Republicans are laying the groundwork for an updated version of the false “voter fraud” claims they made after then-President Trump lost the election four years ago.
This time their target is the so-called non-citizen vote, which experts in both parties have dismissed as rare and unimportant. But Republicans hope it will appeal to voters frustrated by illegal immigration.
By law, only US citizens are eligible to vote for president and other top federal offices.
But Republican Party officials have claimed — without evidence — that the practice could undermine U.S. elections. states including Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma has initiated reviews of voter rolls, issued executive orders, and placed constitutional amendments on ballots aimed at preventing the possibility of non-citizens voting.
This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) attempted to link a bill to increase government spending and prevent a federal shutdown to a controversial GOP proposal — the SAVE Act — that would require states to obtain proof of U.S. citizenship when people register to vote.
Johnson withdrew the idea on Wednesday because of a lack of support from his own members. But the issue is likely not going away.
Last month, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that Arizona can require proof of citizenship when registering new voters for future elections. It was an emergency order that was unlikely to have an impact on this year’s election, but it broke new ground by confirming that states can require proof of citizenship when registering all new voters through their state system.
Trump addressed the issue in the presidential debate on Wednesday night, saying the Biden administration was bringing in migrants to garner votes for the Democratic Party.
Republicans in California don’t have enough power to shape state policy. But California House Republicans, along with the majority, are trying to draw attention to the issue at the federal level.
one of House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings On Tuesday, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) said that according to the most recent polls, Vice President Kamala Harris is ahead of Trump by 1.1%. RealClear Polling AverageHe said that amid such a tough competition, he was worried that illegal votes could decide the presidential election.
“And even if it doesn’t happen, the mere notion of it is enough to destroy public confidence that this vote will accurately reflect the will of the American people,” he added.
“In California, you can’t prosecute someone for voting illegally unless you can prove they actually voted illegally. knew it was illegalMcClintock added, “All a defendant has to say is, ‘Hey, they gave me a registration form, they sent me a ballot. How do I know?’ And that’s a legitimate issue. How many people are in legal trouble and don’t even know it?”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) shared his criticism on X that “Democrats preach voter integrity and then oppose things like the SAVE Act, which would help accomplish that.”
Congress has until Sept. 30 to approve a temporary funding bill and avert a government shutdown.
On Wednesday, Johnson said he had pulled the spending bill with the SAVE Act from a scheduled vote so he could “work over the weekend” to build consensus on it. Several Republican lawmakers have said they oppose the measure.
Democrats criticized the move, saying the spending bill should not include partisan policies and that the SAVE Act would only complicate voter registration.
“I actually did voter protection work during the 2020 race in Tampa, Florida, and what we saw was that there were seniors who couldn’t get driver’s licenses anymore, or theirs had expired,” said Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-San Pedro). “So guess what? They couldn’t vote. When you have restrictions like that, it disenfranchises some people. What they’re trying to accomplish here is really more about political weather and creating doubt about who’s voting.”
Noncitizens who vote in elections for president or members of Congress face fines, imprisonment and possibly deportation, according to a 1996 law. Federal law requires states to routinely remove from voter rolls anyone who is ineligible.
Republicans in some states have pointed to voter registration reviews that have turned up names of potential noncitizens.
In Texas, for example, Governor Greg Abbott said more than 6,500 potential non-citizens had been removed from the state’s nearly 18 million voter rolls since 2021. That includes 1,930 people with “voter histories” that were referred for investigation by the attorney general’s office.
But data shows that voting by non-citizens is rare. A study of the 2016 election by the Brennan Center for Justice The investigation found that authorities had referred about 30 cases of suspected non-citizen voting for investigation or prosecution.
A Review by the American Immigration Council of The right-wing Heritage FoundationThe U.S. database reveals 68 cases of non-citizen voting since the 1980s.
David Baker, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said the SAVE Act, which applies only to voter registration once it takes effect, will have no impact on the November election.
“The registration deadline starts on October 6, so any voter registered for 2024 will not be affected by the SAVE Act,” he said. “Why are you making claims about non-citizens in a situation where House Republicans have controlled Congress since January 2023, when Donald Trump was president of the United States for four years and could do something about it?”
He said the answer is that the issue is fabricated.
“This is not about fixing any perceived problems — even if those problems exist — because there’s no time to do that,” he said. “It’s about fueling claims that the election was stolen, in the hopes that they think their preferred candidate is going to lose.”
In California, The Racist Myth of Immigrant Voter Fraud The phenomenon goes back to at least 1988, when Republicans hired security guards to monitor Latino neighborhoods during a battle for a state legislative seat, holding large placards that read “Non-citizens Cannot Vote!”
There were approximately 750 immigrants in 1998. Removed from Orange County voter rolls The incident prompted an investigation by a House committee and led to the creation of California’s first procedure to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls.
Riverside County prosecutors in 2019 found an undocumented immigrant had voted for more than a decade, but investigators said there was no evidence to support widespread fraud.
In Santa Ana, there will be a ballot measure in November granting limited voting power to non-citizens Local elections have been proposed to be held by 2028, but this has been strongly opposed by those who think only citizens should be given the right to vote.
“It’s not like these localities are committing felonies,” said Mindy Romero, founder of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC, who added that it’s not unconstitutional for noncitizens to vote in local elections. “This is a policy conversation that will continue as more communities may decide to take up the issue.”
Romero said the few cities that have opened up some local elections to non-citizen voters are still struggling with voter turnout because they, like many other groups, need to organize.
He said concerns about voter fraud are fueled by misinformation, fear and negative attitudes about immigrants. He said that saying immigrants are coming to the U.S. with the intention of influencing politics makes people distrust the entire political structure. “That’s also another thing to be afraid of: immigrants are trying to take my vote away from me,” he said.
