Can illegal immigrants really vote in US elections?

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Donald Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly claimed that Democrats are considering allowing illegal immigrants to vote in the US elections.

Our elections are bad, and a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in are trying to get them to vote, Trump said during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

BBC Verify identified more than 100 paid ads on Facebook and Instagram posted by Republicans since the start of September that focused on the issue.

It is illegal for a non-US citizen to vote in a national election, but studies suggest that cases where this happens are very rare.

What laws are in place to prevent illegal immigrants from voting?

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Accountability Act of 1996 prohibits non-citizens – which includes illegal immigrants – from voting in federal elections.

The penalty includes one year in prison, a fine and possible deportation.

Each state is required to use a common registration form that requires people to confirm they are U.S. citizens, under penalty of perjury for false statements, but does not require documentary proof.

That first step of having to check a box saying you're a citizen to register to vote is a huge deterrent to illegal immigrants because it's extremely risky to lie, says Jasleen Singh, a voting expert at from the liberal political think tank Brennan Center for Justice.

In many states, voter rolls are cross-referenced with citizenship and immigration services, death certificates, and postal records to ensure that people who are non-citizens, deceased, or living out of state are not listed on the ballot. the electoral lists.

At the polling stations, there is a list of eligible voters, and if a non-citizen shows up, they will be turned away or asked to cast a provisional vote which will only be accepted if they can provide proof of citizenship, explains the professor Ronald Hayduk, a voting rights expert at San Francisco State University.

Non-citizens are also not allowed to vote in national elections.

However, some municipalities in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington DC allow them to vote in certain local elections, such as those for school boards.

What evidence is there that illegal immigrants vote?

A number of studies, from conservative and left-wing organizations, suggest that cases of illegal immigrants voting in US federal elections are very rare.

One, conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, surveyed 44 election officials who worked in 12 states during the 2016 elections.

It found that out of 23.5 million votes counted in those states, about 30 suspicious incidents of non-citizen voting were referred for further investigation.

This represents approximately 0.0001% of all votes cast.

An analysis of a database that collected cases of voter fraud between 1999 and 2023 by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, found 77 cases of non-citizen voting.

A number of other reports, including one from the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, titled Noncitizens Do Not Vote Illegally in Detectable Numbers, come to similar conclusions.

“According to many lines of evidence, the number of noncitizens who vote in elections is very low,” says Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and author of several reports on voter fraud.

“It's not zero, some people fall through the cracks for various reasons, but it's far from having an impact on the outcome of an election.”

What evidence do Republicans cite?

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a Republican proposal that would require people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote, was defeated in the House of Representatives.

Republican lawmakers continue to push for more citizenship requirements.

A number of states have conducted audits of their voter rolls and found thousands of non-citizens, top House Republican Mike Johnson told CNN.

He highlighted Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia, three states where polls show a tight race between Trump and Kamala Harris.

In Ohio, a study requested by state Republican officials found that out of about eight million registered voters, 597 cases were subject to further scrutiny and potential prosecution for registered non-citizens. the electoral lists.

In Pennsylvania, a problem with electronic touchscreens at state driver's license centers incorrectly showed noncitizens the option to register to vote while obtaining a new or updated license.

This issue was present in the system between 2006 and 2017 and has since been resolved.

In 2017, Pennsylvania state election officials said non-citizen immigrants may have illegally voted 544 of more than 93 million ballots cast in elections dating back to 2000.

In Georgia, a review of 2022 voter rolls found that 1,634 people attempted to register to vote but could not be verified, out of about seven million registered voters.

Voter fraud and voting by illegal immigrants are so rare that this myth is intended to sow doubt about the integrity of elections and lay the groundwork for doubting the outcome of the election, Ms. Singh says.

Republican ads still sow doubt

BBC Verify identified 118 paid advertisements posted on Facebook and Instagram since September 1 by Republican candidates or by Republican political groups that call for broad voter registration of non-citizens or that raise questions about whether non-citizens citizens should be allowed to vote. in the elections.

The ads we identified were served between 7.8 and nine million times across the platforms.

One, which has been viewed more than 2.4 million times, invites users to participate in a survey with the question: “Should illegal immigrants be allowed to vote?”

Another ad posted by Congresswoman Ann Wagner, with more than 900,000 views, asks users to answer the same question.

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Additional reporting by Maryam Ahmed.

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