Eight U.S. states are asking to ban noncitizens from voting even though it is already illegal, and critics say it is part of a plan by Donald Trump and his Republican allies to challenge the presidential election result if he loses again on Nov. 5.
The states include two that are expected to help decide the election. The measures, on the Nov. 5 ballot, seek to amend state constitutions. Trump, the Republican Party candidate, says noncitizen votes could skew the election outcome.
Support from a majority of voters would mainly tweak state constitutions to say explicitly that only citizens can vote, a change critics say will have little practical effect, given that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in those states.
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Noncitizen voting is already illegal, and rarely happens
The proposals will be on the ballot in November in the swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin as well as the solidly Republican states of Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina.
Supporters say the measures address voter concerns spawned by record levels of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and the discovery of small numbers of potential noncitizens on voter rolls in some states.
Independent political analysts and democracy advocates note it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in U.S. federal elections and say that any flagging faith in the system is the result of former President Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election loss to Biden was the result of fraud.
The proposed amendments are the latest salvo in a campaign that has included at least eight Republican lawsuits challenging voter registration processes and an attempt by the House of Representatives Republican majority to pass a law requiring Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote.
“Individuals across the state are concerned with the electoral process, and they want to make sure that the votes counted are legal votes,” said Jason Simmons, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party.
Democrats and even some Republicans say the measures reflect Trump’s ongoing attempts to cast doubt on the reliability of U.S. elections.
“You’ve had the loser of the last presidential election arguing that the election was fraudulent for the last four years, and 70% of Republicans believe it,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who has worked for a range of party leaders including U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham, as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
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Few localities allow non-citizens to vote
Seventeen U.S. localities currently allow legal noncitizens to vote in local – but not federal – elections, including the Democratic strongholds of San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The city of Santa Ana, California, which has a Democratic mayor, has a ballot measure this year asking voters whether noncitizen residents should be allowed to vote in municipal elections.
Independent studies have shown that illegal noncitizen voting rarely happens, a finding that has been echoed by Republican state officials who oversee elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“The evidence shows that this just really isn’t a concern,” said Hannah Alarian, political science professor at the University of Florida. “It’s not an issue really prevalent at all.”
Trump’s allegations about noncitizen voters date back to the 2016 presidential election.
Trump won that year by taking a majority in the state-by-state Electoral College system, but secured less of the national popular vote than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, a result that Trump falsely claimed was the result of millions of noncitizen immigrants illegally voting.
He has kept up that theme, falsely claiming that Democrats are encouraging people to enter the country illegally to vote.
“A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote,” Trump said in his Sept. 11 debate against Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. “And that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”
Republicans in Congress have used the conspiracy claim and other unsubstantiated allegations of cheating to qualify their willingness to certify a potential Trump loss when 2024 election results reach Congress on Jan. 6.
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“The lies being spread by Trump … about noncitizen voting have been repeatedly debunked,” U.S. Representative Joseph Morelle, top Democrat on a House committee that oversees elections, said in a recent MSNBC opinion piece. “They have persisted in a clear attempt to generate anxiety in the minds of voters, and to serve, come November, as the foundation for false claims of election fraud.”
