Getty ImagesDonald Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly claimed that Democrats are planning to force illegal immigrants to vote in U.S. elections.
“Our elections are bad, we have a lot of illegal immigrants coming into our country, and we’re trying to get them to vote,” Trump said during a presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
BBC Verify identified more than 100 paid ads on Facebook and Instagram posted by republicans focusing on the issue since early September.
It is illegal for non-US citizens to vote in national elections, but research shows that this is extremely rare.
What laws are in place to prevent illegal immigrants from voting?
The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 prohibits noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, from voting in federal elections.
The penalty is one year in prison, a fine, and possibly deportation.
All states are required to use a common registration form, and false claims are subject to penalties of perjury, but no documentary evidence is required, and verification of U.S. citizenship is required. .
Jasleen Singh, a voting expert at liberal policy think tank Brennan, said: “Lying is so dangerous that the first step in registering to vote is having to check the box to say you’re a citizen. “This will act as a major deterrent to illegal immigration.” center of justice.
In many states, voter rolls are cross-referenced with citizenship and immigration, death certificates, and postal records to ensure that noncitizens, deceased people, and people living out of state are not registered to vote.
“Polling places have lists of voters, and if non-citizens show up, they are turned away or told to cast a provisional ballot, which will only be accepted if they can provide proof of citizenship,” the professor says. said Ronald Hejduk, a voting rights expert at San Francisco State University.
Noncitizens cannot vote, even in statewide elections.
However, some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., allow voting in certain local elections, such as school boards.
What is the evidence that illegal immigrants vote?
Numerous studies by both conservative and left-wing organizations suggest that instances of illegal immigrants voting in U.S. federal elections are extremely rare.
The Brennan Center for Justice’s research interviewed 44 election officials in 12 states during the 2016 election.
Of the 23.5 million votes counted in these states, an estimated 30 cases of suspected non-referendum votes were found to have been sent for further investigation.
This corresponds to approximately 0.0001% of all votes.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, analyzed a database of election fraud cases from 1999 to 2023 and found 77 non-referendum votes.
A number of other reports by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, called “Noncitizens Do Not Vote Illegally in Detectable Numbers” have reached similar conclusions.
“Most evidence suggests that the number of noncitizens who vote in elections is very small,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who has written numerous reports on voter fraud.
“It’s not zero. There are people who slip through the cracks for various reasons, but it’s nowhere near the level where they can influence the outcome of an election.”
What evidence do Republicans cite?
The Protecting American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE), a Republican proposal that would have required proof of citizenship to register to vote, failed in the House of Representatives.
Republican lawmakers continue to push for expanded citizenship requirements.
“There are many states that have audited their voter rolls and found thousands of noncitizens,” House Republican Leader Mike Johnson told CNN.
He highlighted three states where polls show a close race between Trump and Kamala Harris: Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
In Ohio, an investigation called for by Republican officials in the state called for “further investigation and possible prosecution” of non-citizens who registered to vote among the roughly 8 million registered voters. It turned out that there were 597 cases.
In Pennsylvania, a glitch in the electronic touchscreen at the state driver’s license center incorrectly showed noncitizens the option to register to vote when obtaining a new or renewal license.
This flaw existed in the system from 2006 to 2017 and has now been resolved.
In 2017, Pennsylvania election officials said noncitizen immigrants may have illegally cast 544 votes out of more than 93 million votes in elections dating back to 2000.
In Georgia, a review of the 2022 voter rolls found that 1,634 of approximately 7 million registered voters “attempted to register to vote” but were “unable to authenticate.”
“Because voter fraud and illegal immigrant voting are so rare, this myth sows doubts about the integrity of elections and lays the foundation for questioning election results,” Singh said.
Republican ad raises more suspicions
BBC Verify identified 118 paid ads posted by Republican candidates and political groups on Facebook and Instagram since September 1st. These advertisements broadly advocate the registration of noncitizens to vote or raise the question of whether noncitizens should be allowed to vote. In the election.
The ads we identified were viewed between 7.8 million and 9 million times on the platform.
One of them, which has been viewed more than 2.4 million times, asks users to take part in a survey with the question, “Should illegal immigrants be allowed to vote?”
Another ad posted by Rep. Ann Wagner, which has been viewed more than 900,000 times, asks users to answer the same question.
Additional reporting by Maryam Ahmed.
