Non-Citizen Voter Registration and Voting in U.S. Elections

Banning Non-Citizens from U.S. Voter Rolls is Essential

While federal law prohibits non-citizen voting in federal elections, the U.S. has, in practice, opened the door wide to non-citizen voting through (1) the lack of enforcement mechanisms, (2) poor elections administration by certain states, and (3) mass illegal immigration.

FACTS AND NUMBERS

• According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in the past four years, at least 13 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States, coming from every country in the world.
• In August 2024 alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens were removed from the voter rolls in Texas, Alabama, and Virginia.
• In the United States, some local jurisdictions allow non-citizens to vote in local elections thanks to their state laws permitting them to do so. Non-citizen voting also occurs illegally.
• The Biden-Harris Department of Justice sued Virginia in October of 2024 for removing non-citizens from voting rolls, even though those individuals had self-identified as non-citizens. This is a blatant violation of federal law and a disregard for Americans' constitutional rights.

MAJOR ISSUE:

Proof of U.S. citizenship is often not required in order to register to vote, only an unproven, unverified, attestation of one's citizenship status. There is no enforcement mechanism to ensure citizenship. Combined with Automatic Voter Registration, where every person who gets a driver's license is automatically registered to vote, sometimes including non-citizens and also considering that many states suffer poor elections adminstration in that the voter rolls are not well maintained, it becomes easy for non-citizens to vote.

HOW TO FIX IT:

In order to guarantee that only U.S. citizens are voting, states should not accept or process a voter registration application for voting in federal, state, or local elections unless the applicant presents documentary proof of U.S. citizenship with the application. States should also prohibit Automatic Voter Registration and ensure regular, thorough, transparent voter list maintenence.

"To be an American citizen is to have a right ot a voice to help determine who represents you in government and who will stand for your ideas, values, and freedom... sadly, some on the Left are... giving unfair preference to individuals who have not made an effort or made the sacrifices to obtain American citizenship."

- The Hon J. Kenneth Blackwell, Chair, Center for Election Integrity