GOP seeks to block noncitizen voting despite federal ban
In a Friday event at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Republicans in Congress would introduce a bill to make noncitizen voting illegal, ignoring the fact that noncitizens already cannot vote in federal elections and repeating false allegations of rampant election fraud.
Their joint appearance came soon after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., called for Johnson’s ouster for working too closely with Democrats, and as Trump continues to make securing the border a key argument for his return to the White House.
As he campaigns in 2024, Trump has repeatedly made false and ridiculous statements about the 2020 election. Trump’s election result denial has poisoned many Americans’ views on voting, misleading the public about how elections are run.
So far this year, Trump, entrepreneur Elon Musk and social media influencers have spread statements that create a false impression that noncitizens’ voting or their voter registration is rampant. It isn’t.
The rhetoric is fed, partly, by the reality that a minority of cities allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, such as for mayor or city council. This includes some cities in California, Maryland and Vermont, Ron Hayduk, a political science professor at San Francisco State University, previously told PolitiFact.
But by law, only American citizens are allowed to vote in elections for Congress and president.
Trump has made false claims about noncitizens voting stretching back to 2014 and to his 2016 presidential race. He made similar statements after his 2020 loss. Trump said in January that Democrats are allowing immigrants illegally in the country “to come in — people that don’t speak our language — they are signing them up to vote.”
Trump didn’t directly identify who “they” are, but in his preceding comments, he talked about people who “cheat on an election” — language he often uses to talk about Democrats.
Our search for evidence turned up sporadic cases of noncitizens registering to vote or casting ballots. But we found no effort by Democrats to register people in the country illegally. Most noncitizens don’t want to risk jail time (or deportation if they are here illegally) by casting a ballot. Election officials take several steps to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots.
We rated Trump’s statement Pants on Fire.
Musk has posted about noncitizens and voting dozens of times. His posts claim that Biden is bringing in new migrants to boost votes for Democrats.
Musk said in a February post on X that Biden’s strategy is to “get as many illegals in the country as possible” and “legalize them to create a permanent majority.”
The path to U.S. citizenship, which is required for voting in federal elections, can take a decade, so the current influx of immigrants would not lead to a significant number of new voters for many years, if ever. Even when immigrants become voting citizens, it doesn’t mean the United States will become a one-party nation. We rated Musk’s statement False.
If a noncitizen is allowed to vote in a city race, that does not give that person the right to vote for president.
For example, Takoma Park, Md., has allowed noncitizen voting for mayor and city council since 1993. About 200 noncitizens are registered to vote in elections, compared with 11,200 registered citizen voters, in Takoma Park.
Voting for local elections is done on separate ballots and at different locations from state and federal elections. Jessie Carpenter, Takoma Park’s clerk, said if a noncitizen shows up to vote in a state or federal election, that person would not be on the roll of eligible voters.
“There is no basis for thinking these folks would be voting in state elections,” Carpenter said.
Congressional efforts in works
Republicans in Congress, with a boost from Trump, are pushing for lawmakers to pass a ban on noncitizen voting.
“Congress has a role with regard to federal elections,” Johnson said Friday before his meeting with Trump. “We want to make absolutely certain that anybody who votes is actually an American citizen. In some states, it’s too easy. … So we need to make sure that federal law is clear on that matter.”
The proposed legislation is drawing attention because Republicans have made fear of noncitizen voting a frequent talking point as a high number of migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
There are a few Republican-backed legislative efforts to curb noncitizen voting.
The broadest bill, the American Confidence in Elections Act, is sponsored by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis. It has 131 cosponsors, all Republicans. One provision in this bill says it will ensure “only eligible American citizens may participate in federal elections. It draws from previous legislation including the “NO VOTE for NonCitizens Act of 2023” filed by Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va.
The bill acknowledges that this requirement is duplicative of existing law and constitutional requirements: Noncitizens are already not allowed to vote in federal elections.
These measures would fall short of banning local noncitizen voting entirely, because federalism prevents Congress from infringing on local powers over their own jurisdictions. But because of Congress’ unusual ability to influence governance in the District of Columbia, the bill would block the district directly from allowing noncitizens to vote. The district’s provisions have attracted intense opposition from voting rights groups.
This bill has passed the House Administration Committee, which Steil chairs, over Democratic opposition. But it has not received a floor vote yet.
Amid Republican concerns that the full bill will have trouble getting through the chamber, the committee has also approved six pieces of Steil’s bill as standalone legislation. Three of these smaller bills touch on noncitizen voting.
It’s unclear when, or whether, any of these measures will come to a vote in the House. If they do pass the House, the ones that receive widespread Democratic opposition are likely to be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.