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npr.org
APRIL 12, 2024
Miles Parks
BARF ALERT

Republicans aim to stop noncitizen voting in federal elections. It’s already illegal

pic-—House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks as former President Donald Trump listens during a news conference Friday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla.
Wilfredo Lee/AP

Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared together Friday to tout legislation aimed at stopping something that is already illegal in America: noncitizens voting in federal elections.

Johnson gave a broad overview of a bill House Republicans will soon introduce that would implement new citizenship documentation requirements for people to register to vote, which experts have said would make voting harder for many eligible voters like naturalized citizens and young voters.

“We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur,” he said at a news conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “Especially when the threat of fraud is growing with every single illegal immigrant that crosses that [southern U.S.] border.”

The myth that immigrants are exerting undue influence on American elections has been floating around U.S. politics for more than 100 years.

Individual states began banning noncitizens from voting more than a century ago, and Congress passed a law in 1996 that explicitly banned the practice in all federal elections.

Numerous studies have also confirmed that it almost never happens, but as more conservative voters say immigration is a key issue for them, it’s become clearer that election misinformation in 2024 will center on the topic as well.

Conservatives are warning about noncitizens voting. It’s a myth with a long history

How the far right tore apart one of the best tools to fight voter fraud

Last month, NPR acquired a two-page memo being circulated by conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell, a former adviser to Trump, that pushed a number of false narratives around noncitizens voting. The document focused mostly on the implementation of a 1993 law that made registering to vote easier, and Johnson mentioned the law in his remarks Friday as well.

They both have also pushed the unfounded idea that the Biden administration is allowing migrants to cross the southern border for political gain.

“We believe one of the reasons for this open border ... is because they want to turn these people into voters,” Johnson said, without providing any evidence.

Election officials verify citizenship in different ways in different states, but federal law requires voters to provide a unique identification number when they register to vote and because that is usually either a driver’s license or Social Security number, election officials can usually work with those agencies to verify citizenship status.

“Most applicants use their [driver’s license] to register,” Tammy Patrick, a former local election official in Arizona who is now the CEO of the nonprofit Election Center, wrote in an email. “This number often serves as the validation of citizenship since most DMVs retain citizenship status in their databases.”

Experts say introducing legislation, however, is a way for lawmakers to indicate to voters this issue is something to be concerned about, even as there’s never been evidence to support the idea noncitizens are voting at anything other than miniscule numbers.

Since 2020, nine states have enacted new laws aiming to identify and remove noncitizens from their voter rolls, and legislation is currently active in 16 states, according to the Voting Rights Lab.

“Perception is 9/10 of reality,” Ron Hayduk, an expert on noncitizen voting at San Francisco State University, said in an interview with NPR earlier this year. “Putting the solution on the table suggests there was a problem. And I think that’s part of the point. [These laws] create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

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