NEW YORK (AP) – A political party is holding emergency press conferences and Congressional hearings on the subject. Another claims this is a dangerous distraction aimed at sowing doubt ahead of this year's presidential election.
In the last few months, The specter of immigrants voting illegally in the US has emerged as a major election-year talking point for Republicans.they claim that law necessary to protect the sanctity of voting as the country is facing unprecedented levels of illegal immigration At the US-Mexico border.
Voting by people who are not U.S. citizens is already illegal in federal elections, and there is no indication that it is being done in significant numbers. But Republican lawmakers at the federal and state levels are fully committed to the issue, introducing legislation and measures on fall ballots. This work will ensure that this issue remains at the forefront of voters' consciousness in the coming months.
Republicans in Congress are pushing a bill called the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Meanwhile, Republican legislatures in at least six states have put non-referendum measures on the Nov. 5 ballot, and at least two more are debating whether to do so.
“America's elections are for the American people, and we're going to keep it that way,” said Rep. Brian Still (Wis.), chairman of the House Administration Committee, at a hearing he hosted on the issue last week. mentioned in.
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Democrats on the committee criticized Republican lawmakers for focusing on what they called “non-controversial issues,” which are aimed at laying the groundwork for an election challenge this fall. He claimed that it was part of his strategy.
“The lesson Republicans learned from the former president's 2020 fiasco is not 'Don't steal the election,' but 'Don't steal the election sooner. It seems like he just said, 'Let's start.'” “The coup d'état begins here. It begins here.”
Concerns that disenfranchised immigrants are voting illegally have long been widespread on the right. However, with the inauguration of President Trump earlier this year, the issue has once again attracted attention. suggest without evidence Democrats say they are encouraging illegal immigration to the U.S. so newcomers can register to vote.
Republican lawmakers who have been vocal about non-citizen voting countered when asked for proof that it was a problem. He said this at a news conference last week about a federal law requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson They could not provide an example of a crime occurring.
“The answer is we don't know,” the Louisiana Republican said in response to a question about whether these people might be voting illegally. “We all know intuitively that many illegal aliens vote in federal elections, but that is not easy to prove.”
Election administration experts say this is not only provable, it has been proven that the number of noncitizens who vote in federal elections is extremely small.
To be clear, there have been incidents over the years of noncitizens illegally registering and even voting. However, the state has a mechanism to catch it.Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently 137 people suspected of being non-citizens discovered He announced last week that he was taking steps to verify and remove about 8 million voters registered on the state's rolls.
In 2022, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger audit A person specifically looking for non-citizens on his state's voter rolls. His office said 1,634 people tried to register to vote over 25 years, but election authorities were aware of all the applications and not a single person was able to register.
A 2016 North Carolina election audit found: 41 legal immigrants Of the 4.8 million total votes cast, those who were not yet citizens voted. The vote had no effect on elections in any state.
Voters must identify themselves as citizens under penalty of perjury when registering to vote. David Becker, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation Research, said lying could result in fines, jail time or deportation.
In addition, anyone who registers will provide a Social Security number, driver's license or state ID, Becker said. That means they've already presented government proof of citizenship to receive those documents, or if they're a non-citizen with a state ID or Social Security number, they're clearly classified as such in state records. I'm saying that.
“What they're looking for is additional evidence,” Becker said of the Republicans pushing Johnson's bill. “Why do people have to go to multiple government agencies and ask, 'Please show me my documents,' when I can already show them my documents?”
Democrats are concerned that adding more ID requirements could lead to disenfranchise voters People who don't have their birth certificate or social security card on hand. Republicans counter that the additional measures could provide greater security and boost voter confidence in a flawed system that has traditionally allowed non-citizen voters to slip through the cracks.
The state's focus on noncitizen votes also draws attention to a related but separate phenomenon. That's how a handful of local governments, including San Francisco and the District of Columbia, have begun allowing noncitizen immigrants to vote in some local governments. Contests for school boards, city councils, etc.
The number of noncitizen voters voting in towns and cities where they are allowed to vote has so far been minimal. In Winooski, Vermont, where 1,345 people voted in the recent local election, only 11 were noncitizens, a clerk told The Associated Press. Still, the phenomenon is slowly growing, prompting some state legislatures to introduce ballot measures that would prevent cities from doing so in the future.
Voters in South Carolina are scheduled to decide on a proposed constitutional amendment in November, but supporters say it would close the door to voting for non-citizens. The state's constitution currently states that all eligible voters over the age of 18 may vote. In the proposed amendment, the wording would be changed to “citizens only.”
Republican state Sen. Chip Campsen argued it was a safeguard to prevent future problems. California has language similar to South Carolina's current provision, and Campsen cited a California Supreme Court ruling that said “all” does not prevent noncitizens from voting.
Democratic state Sen. Darrell Jackson asked Campsen during a debate last month, “Do we have that problem here in South Carolina?”
“A problem isn't solved until it's a problem,” Campsen replied.
On Friday, Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly passed a November ballot measure that would ban both non-national and ranked-choice voting.
“I know there's a scary theory out there that says, 'So what about St. Louis? What about Kansas City?'” said Democratic state Sen. Lauren Arthur of Kansas City. “This isn't a real threat because it's already outlawed. It's already illegal in Missouri.”
Asked Thursday by Democrats about instances in which noncitizens voted in Missouri, Republican Rep. Alex Riley said he didn't have “specific data or scenarios where that happened,” but added, “That's the American way of thinking. “We want to address concerns that this may occur.” future. “
In Wisconsin, a key battleground state in the presidential election, the Republican-controlled Legislature also introduced a non-referendum measure on this fall's ballot, but Democratic state Rep. Lee Snodgrass said at a hearing earlier this week that He said he didn't understand why he was voting. If you are a legal citizen, you will vote.
“I wonder what people think motivates non-citizens to go to great lengths to vote in elections, actively commit felonies, and end up in prison or deportation. “I'm trying to do it,” she said.
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Associated Press writers Summer Valentine in Jefferson City, Missouri, Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
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