For years, Republican lawmakers have used the threat of noncitizen voting to justify increasingly harsh voting restrictions. They claim that noncitizens are flooding the rolls, illegally swinging elections and that the only fix is to make voting harder — especially by requiring proof of citizenship.
“Noncitizen illegal migrants are getting the right to vote, being pushed by crooked Democrat politicians,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform last July. “Republicans must pass the SAVE Act.”
We’ve long known this narrative was false. But this year, it was put to the test in a new way.
Across the country, a wave of investigations launched by election officials, local prosecutors and Republican-led legislatures sought to uncover evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. They found — again — that noncitizen voting was nearly nonexistent, and the few cases that did emerge were isolated, unintentional or the result of administrative error — not organized voter fraud.
In some states, no votes were cast at all. In others, small numbers were flagged out of millions of ballots. Often, those flagged were later found to be citizens or had been swept up by flawed data-matching systems.
Yet despite the evidence — or lack thereof — the myth persists. GOP officials continue to cite these isolated cases as justification for restrictive laws like proof-of-citizenship requirements.
“Democrat officials oppose basic safeguards and dismantle election integrity provisions, intentionally opening the door to non-citizen voting in our elections.” Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement after sending letters to several states urging them to investigate noncitizen voting.
“Laws are meant to address real problems,” Victoria Francis, deputy director of state and local initiatives of the American Immigration Council, told Democracy Docket. “But when states enact proof-of-citizenship policies in response to extraordinarily rare cases of noncitizen voting, they convey a misleading message that this is a widespread issue.”
Francis warned that such policies “fuel public fear and misunderstanding” and open the door for discrimination and profiling — particularly against naturalized citizens.
“These laws divert resources away from real community needs,” Francis added. “They waste time and money addressing a non-issue rather than strengthening civic participation.”
Furthermore, voting rights advocates say strict proof of citizenship laws inflict disproportionate harm on eligible voters.
“We often hear lawmakers making the argument that these laws are justified regardless of scale or impact, and even admit they are driven by ‘intuition,’ not actual facts,” Lauren Kunis, Executive Director of VoteRiders, an organization that fights document-based disenfranchisement, told Democracy Docket. “But these lawmakers are ignoring the dire consequences of these laws on eligible citizens, who will disproportionately bear the brunt of these restrictions relative to the exceedingly rare and almost-always accidental cases of noncitizen voting.”
Michigan
In April, the Michigan Department of State concluded a months-long review that compared more than 7.9 million DMV records with the state’s voter rolls. It found that 15 people who appeared to be noncitizens had voted in the 2024 general election, out of more than 5.7 million ballots cast.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) acknowledged the potential violations but sharply rejected the idea that such numbers justify sweeping voter restrictions.
“This is a serious issue, one we must address with a scalpel, not a sledgehammer,” Benson said. “This tiny fraction of potential cases do not justify recent efforts to pass laws we know would block tens of thousands of Michigan citizens from voting.”
13 cases were referred to Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), but no charges against any of those have been publicly announced. Nessel has been vocal about her opposition to sweeping proof-of-citizenship laws.
Michigan officials agreed there was no evidence of widespread fraud and that the review ultimately demonstrates Michigan’s election security systems are working as intended.
Oregon
A clerical error in Oregon led to 1,822 people being mistakenly added to the voter rolls through the state’s ‘Motor Voter’ system. The error led to 38 noncitizens voting in 2024, out of more than 2.3 million ballots cast.
None of the votes impacted any election outcome. Election officials emphasized that the individuals who did cast ballots did so on the belief they were lawfully registered — not with fraudulent intent.
Iowa
A comprehensive review of noncitizen voting in Iowa began with alarming headlines when more than 2,000 voters were flagged for potential ineligibility based on outdated DMV records.
“We encourage all citizens to vote, we will enforce the law and ensure those votes aren’t cancelled out by the illegal vote of a noncitizen,” Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said after a court ruling allowed the investigation to move forward.
After months of verification, only 35 noncitizens were confirmed to have voted in the 2024 general election, out of over 1.6 million ballots cast statewide. The overwhelming majority of flagged voters were either lawful citizens or never voted at all after registration.
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) has proposed legislation for more strict verification tools and filed suit against federal immigration officials for withholding data, even while acknowledging that most flagged voters had been wrongly included in initial lists.
“Only eligible Iowa voters should participate in Iowa elections,” Pate said. “We’re working with the legislature to verify citizenship at registration, rather than at the ballot box.”
Ohio
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced that his office flagged 62 registrations potentially tied to noncitizens based on state and federal data in March.
By June, following a review by LaRose’s Public Integrity Division —created especially to investigate election crimes — that number had dropped to 30. The cases were referred to Attorney General Dave Yost (R), who has used isolated cases to amplify the fraud narrative.
“Even one illegal vote can spoil the outcome of an election,” LaRose wrote in a letter to Yost. “We must send a clear message that election fraud won’t be tolerated.”
But as of late July, no confirmed cases of noncitizen voting or fraudulent ballots have emerged, and no criminal charges have been announced.
LaRose has also pushed the legislature to enact strict proof of citizenship for voter registration, with no evidence that noncitizens have influenced any Ohio election.
Wyoming
As Democracy Docket previously reported, an investigation by Laramie County, Wyoming, the state’s largest county, found no evidence of noncitizen voting in the 2024 election. The review was launched after 13 voters were flagged for possible citizenship issues.
After working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), investigators determined that every single one of them was eligible to vote.
“All 13 individuals were legally present in the United States and had voted legally,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a public statement. “No further action was necessary.”
The investigation’s results undermine claims from Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray (R) and the Republican National Committee, who have championed the state’s newly enacted proof-of-citizenship law.
Alaska
In one of the most unusual noncitizen voting investigations, prosecutors in Whittier, Alaska filed felony charges against 11 residents, all born in American Samoa. The investigation began after an anonymous tip to the state Elections Division prompted scrutiny of voting records in the town.
American Samoans are U.S. nationals, not citizens — a rarely understood distinction that many, including public officials, failed to explain.
“All evidence indicates she believed she was eligible to vote in local elections when she registered,” the ACLU of Alaska stated in support of one of the defendants. “Local election officials encouraged her to check the box labeled U.S. citizen when she registered, given the fact that there was no option for U.S. national.”
These are not cases of organized noncitizen voting, but the outcome of confusion and human error. Alaska has logged only one confirmed noncitizen voter case over more than a decade.
Texas
Texas officials have been actively looking for any possible noncitizens on the rolls, spurred by political pressure to “secure” elections. In June, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson (R) announced that her office identified 33 “potential noncitizens” who voted in the 2024 election and referred their names to Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). Roughly 11.3 million Texans voted in 2024.
“Noncitizens must not be allowed to influence American elections,” Paxton said in June.
Paxton has a history of aggressively pursuing nonvoting allegations, often with little evidence. In 2019, his office backed a purge attempt that falsely flagged nearly 95,000 registered voters — most of them naturalized U.S. citizens. Despite the effort, Paxton’s decades-long campaign to expose voter fraud has produced few convictions, especially in cases involving noncitizens.
While the investigation continues, as of late July, no charges have been filed, and officials have offered no public evidence that any of the 33 voters knowingly violated the law.