House Republicans Push Bills Banning Noncitizen Voting—Defending Trump’s Unfounded Fraud Claims

Topline

The GOP-led House is pushing legislation aimed at preventing noncitizens from voting in federal elections—even though the practice is already illegal and rarely occurs—a bill that has little chance of becoming law, but backs former President Donald Trump’s unfounded election fraud claims.

Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for his campaign rally … [+] in Wildwood Beach on May 11, 2024 in Wildwood, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The Committee on House Administration voted along party lines Thursday to advance the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act,” which would require voters to provide documentation proving their citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, prior to voting in federal elections.

Republicans who support the bill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have parroted Trump’s unproven claims that noncitizens routinely vote in U.S. elections, despite studies showing the opposite.

Federal law requires voters to swear on their registration forms that they are U.S. citizens, under risk of perjury, but it does not require them to provide proof.

The law seems to work, according to studies, including an audit by Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that found 1,634 noncitizens had attempted to register to vote in the state between 1997 and 2022, but none actually voted.

Another study, by the liberal nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, found that election officials in 42 jurisdictions it surveyed referred only 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voter fraud in the 2016 election to prosecutors for further investigation.

The libertarian Cato Institute think tank came to a similar conclusion in contesting what it described as a fraught study that suggested thousands of noncitizens voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, determining “there is no good evidence that noncitizens voted illegally in large enough numbers to actually shift the outcome of elections or even change the number of electoral votes.”

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Chief Critic

“This narrative will aggravate the perilous infection of election denialism that is spreading in the American civic body,” Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said during Thursday’s hearing.

Big Number

16%. That’s the share of voters who said immigration is the most urgent issue in the country today, according to a May Quinnipiac survey that found 52% believe Trump would handle the issue better than Biden, while 41% of respondents preferred Biden on immigration. The economy was the top issue for 28% of voters, followed by preserving democracy (21%), then immigration.

Key Background

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Biden administration is “allowing” undocumented immigrants to cross the border and “signing them up to vote.” In 2016, he made the unfounded accusation that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million votes, in part, because millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the presidential election. X owner Elon Musk has backed Trump’s claims, alleging the Biden administration has engaged in “treason” by “importing voters,” he tweeted March 5. Trump has promised even more radical anti-immigration policies if he’s elected again, including deploying the National Guard to round up and deport undocumented immigrants en masse. Trump also successfully blocked a bipartisan border security bill from passing Congress, arguing it would be a “gift” to Democrats in an election year. The legislation failed to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate for a second time Thursday.

Tangent

Some municipalities, including Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. The House on Thursday passed a bill, with bipartisan support, that would roll back the D.C. law, but it has little chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law by Biden.