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.
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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 on Friday to tout legislation aimed at stopping something that is already illegal in America: voting by non-citizens in federal elections.
Johnson gave an overview of a bill House Republicans will soon introduce that would implement new citizenship documentation requirements for people registering to vote, which experts say that will do Voting is more difficult for many eligible voters like naturalized citizens and young voters.
“We cannot wait for widespread fraud to happen,” he said during a news conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. “Especially when the threat of fraud is increasing with every illegal immigrant that passes through there. [southern U.S.] boundary.”
The myth that immigrants are negatively influencing American elections has persisted in American politics for more than 100 years.
The individual states begin Non-citizens are prohibited voting more than a century ago, and Congress passed a law in 1996 explicitly banning the practice in all federal elections.
Much learn also confirmed that it almost never happens, but more often conservative voters say immigration is an important issue to them, it becomes clearer that misinformation about the 2024 election will also focus on this topic.
Last month, NPR obtained a two-page memo being circulated by conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell, a former adviser to Trump, has pushed several false stories surrounding voting by non-citizens. Documentation focuses mainly on implementation one Law 1993 that makes registering to vote easier, and Johnson also mentioned the law in his speech Friday.
Both also made the unfounded claim that the Biden administration was allowing migrants to cross the southern border for political gain.
“We believe that 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 residential citizenship different ways in different statesbut federal law requires voters to provide a unique identification number when they Register to vote and because it’s often a driver’s license or Social Security number, election officials can often work with those agencies to verify citizenship status.
“Most candidates use [driver’s license] to register,” Tammy Patrick, a former local election official in Arizona who is now CEO of the nonprofit Vote Center, wrote in an email. “This number is often used to authenticate civil rights Citizens because most DMVs keep citizenship in their database. “
Still, experts say introducing legislation is a way for lawmakers to let voters know that the issue is something to care about, even if there’s never been evidence to support the idea. that non-citizens are voting in anything other than minuscule numbers.
Since 2020, nine states have enacted new laws to identify and remove non-citizens from their voter rolls, and the laws are currently in effect in 16 states, according to Voting Rights Lab.
“Perception is nine-tenths of reality,” Ron Hayduk, an expert on non-citizen voting at San Francisco State University, said in an interview with NPR earlier this year. “Putting a solution on the table shows there is a problem. And I think that’s part of the problem. [These laws] creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, asked his office to conduct an investigation Citizenship test in 2022 found fewer than 2,000 suspected non-citizens registered to vote in the state over the previous 25 years. No one can actually vote.
“Non-citizens don’t vote in Georgia,” Raffensperger said in a recent interview with NPR, even though he did. praised Johnson and Trump’s remarks on Friday.
And a recent study in Arizona (first report of The Washington Post) found that less than 1% of non-citizens attempted to register to vote, and even in those cases, the vast majority are considered mistakes.
However, the matter is further complicated by the fact that some local jurisdictions have moved to allow Non-citizens vote in local elections. For example, San Francisco allows non-citizen parents and guardians to vote in school board elections, and some cities in Maryland and Vermont allow non-citizens to vote in school board elections. vote in municipal elections.
Election officials in those jurisdictions take measures to ensure those voters do not vote in races where they are not authorized.
But Hayduk said even in places where non-citizens can legally vote, they usually not. The people he interviewed about their experiences in these places did not want to risk their status in America just to cast a single vote – in his eyes, further proof that this is not a real problem.
“Time and time again in the interviews we conducted, we heard from immigrants that they were extremely excited about this new law that would allow them to vote, and it felt like it affirms their voice. … But, you know, put themselves at risk? Not worth it,” Hayduk said. “Obviously they wouldn’t do that in a federal election, where there was a law clearly passed in 1996 that would have imposed very serious felony charges… and that will certainly lead to their detention and deportation.”
