The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. Violators of the law face possible fines and imprisonment for up to a year, as well as deportation. While some districts allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, no state allows noncitizens to vote in statewide elections. Communities that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections “maintain processes to ensure that a registered noncitizen voter cannot receive a ballot for state or federal races.” [The Associated Press, 9/2/24; Bipartisan Policy Center, 3/13/24]

Voting by noncitizens is extremely rare. The Brennan Center for Justice conducted research in 2017 on noncitizens voting, reviewing 42 jurisdictions in the 2016 election, and reported that, of 23.5 million votes cast, “election officials only found about 30 cases of potential noncitizen voting that they referred for prosecution or further investigation.” [NPR, 3/13/24; The Associated Press, 9/9/24, 10/19/22; Brennan Center for Justice, 5/5/17]

There are many measures in place to prevent noncitizens from voting. Election administration experts have said that reviewing voter rolls has successfully helped to “flag noncitizen voters” and explained that states are “required to conduct regular list maintenance to remove ineligible voters from the rolls.” [Brennan Center for Justice, 3/1/24; The Associated Press, 9/9/24]

There is no evidence that large numbers of unauthorized migrants are registering to vote or that expanded license eligibility for noncitizens increases fraudulent noncitizen voting. Election officials in Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania have debunked claims that Social Security Administration data shows a surge in the number of voters registering without a photo ID. As far as the impact of expanded license eligibility is concerned, according to the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, 17 states and the District of Columbia have expanded license eligibility and “have not reported non-citizens being illegally permitted to vote.” [The Associated Press, 4/4/24, 10/17/22]   

Congressional Republicans argue the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility — or SAVE — Act will put an end to noncitizen voting, even though the issue is virtually nonexistent. The bill has been described as the “‘great replacement’ theory … in legislation form.” Civil rights groups have also condemned the bill, saying it “seeks to intimidate members of immigrant communities and communities from exercising their lawful right to vote.” [The Washington Post, 7/9/24; Media Matters, 9/4/24]

Even data compiled by The Heritage Foundation shows that noncitizen voting is not a major problem. The Heritage Foundation maintains a database of 1,546 “proven instances of voter fraud.” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick examined the database for Immigration Impact and found that most involve U.S. citizens. “A close review of the cases in Heritage’s database reveal that the organization has documented just 68 total cases of noncitizen voting going back to the earliest cases documented in the 1980s. That’s less than 5% of the cases in their database, total. The remaining cases all involve U.S. citizens.” [Immigration Impact, 8/1/24]

Fox host Laura Ingraham and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) discussed the SAVE Act’s supposed purpose of preventing the “very serious problem” of noncitizen voting. Ingraham said, “Illegal immigrants pouring into the country — like we've lost that story in the last couple of weeks — but millions have come in, and let's say even a small, small percentage manages to vote — because they think they can, reasonably believe they're allowed to.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 7/10/24]

Host Sean Hannity claimed that in “states where you don't need proof of citizenship to get a license,” you “never have to require proof of citizenship” to register to vote. Former Trump adviser and frequent Fox guest Stephen Miller responded: “This is a conscious choice to let illegal aliens vote.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/10/24]

Miller alleged that the Biden administration has “resettled” undocumented immigrants in “American cities and towns” to “interfere in the electoral process of the United States.” Miller further called it a “conspiracy” to “undermine the franchise rights of every American as the Biden administration fights relentlessly against verifying the citizenship of voters.” [Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin, 7/7/24]

Fox News host Maria Bartiromo cited a debunked video she claimed “reveals 14 percent of illegal immigrants admitted that they are registered to vote.” The video, posted by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, was described by The New York Times as “one of several misleading videos that the Heritage Foundation has pumped into social media feeds this year.” Despite the video’s claims, the Times reported that “state investigators found no evidence that any of the seven people on the tape had ever registered to vote.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 8/4/24, Twitter/X, 7/31/24; Brennan Center for Justice, 9/10/24; The New York Times, 9/7/24]

Ingraham, Miller, and Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich complained about Tim Walz signing a bill expanding driver’s license eligibility to undocumented immigrants, claiming it was a campaign strategy to receive more votes. Miller ranted, “When he talks about a legal pathway, what he is talking about is bringing in millions of illegal aliens with full amnesty, full government benefits, free health care.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/6/24]

Hannity asked: “If you have illegal immigrants given legal driver's licenses like Walz will give illegal immigrants in the sanctuary state that he loves of Minnesota, and free health care and free college education and you can get a license — once you have a legal license, can’t you register to vote?” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/7/24]

Fox News co-host Jeanine Pirro baselessly claimed that migrants are “lining up to vote right now, given driver's license, which is a point of identification where you can register to vote, and there are jurisdictions that actually want them to vote.” [Fox News, Hannity, 8/9/24]

Ingraham spread “great replacement” theory rhetoric, claiming that the Biden administration was naturalizing immigrants as citizens quickly in the hopes that they would be “repaid” by new citizens who “end up voting Democrat.” When asked about “the real objective” of the Biden administration, guest Stephen Miller stated, “Maximum migration with maximum speed. Their hope is that having a massive amount of unvetted migration into this country, it will tilt the scales to the left.” Miller then accused the Biden administration of naturalizing “criminal illegal aliens,” declaring, “They want illegal aliens to vote.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/14/24; Media Matters, 9/11/24]

On his Premiere radio show, Hannity speculated about whether Democrats allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses in Minnesota would “also allow them perhaps to maybe use that as ID to go and register to vote.” He also asked, “Why would any one major political party not want proof of citizenship? Because you need proof of citizenship for everything else in life.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/21/24]

Host Jesse Watters exaggerated the supposed threat of migrant voting by citing Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) and Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) respective announcements that they had purged voter rolls of thousands of ineligible voters in their states, complaining, “They keep saying it's illegal and it doesn't happen. But now Virginia and Texas have just found thousands of them.” In Virginia, after Youngkin signed an executive order that removed 6,303 noncitizens from the voter rolls, he did not clarify whether that number represented “noncitizens who actually voted or if there was an error and they later turned out to be citizens.” In Texas, Abott claimed to have removed 6,500 noncitizens, but as the Houston Chronicle noted, “Many of the governor’s 6,500 ‘potential noncitizens’ are most likely new U.S. citizens who didn’t verify their new status with the county’s election office within 30 days.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/26/24; NBC News, 8/23/24; Houston Chronicle, 9/4/24]

Fox Business host Sean Duffy claimed, without evidence, that “there's been reports of illegals registering to vote, and there's help coming from the federal government, the state government, and NGOs.” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller responded by pushing “great replacement” theory rhetoric: “And if you wonder — people always say, ‘Why did Kamala Harris allow 20 million illegals into the country?’ It's to try to get to this and to have them vote. Keep in mind, Sean, that in a lot of places around the country, Democrats are pushing to allow noncitizens to actually go and vote in local elections.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/1/24]

Miller declared that the “illegal voting issue” was “a national crisis.” Miller claimed, “In all 50 states, illegal aliens can vote by checking a box on a federal form that says, ‘I'm a citizen.’ That attestation is not validated in any way — not with ID, not with a nationalization record, not with a birth certificate, not with a passport, not with anything. It is on the honor system.” [Fox News, One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, 9/7/24]

After 198 Democrats voted against the SAVE Act, Trump campaign senior adviser and Fox News guest Alina Habba stated: “The Democrats can't win lawfully, so they're trying to make sure that they turn their cheek the other way instead of enforcing the laws that require citizens to vote.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/8/24]

Outnumbered co-host Emily Compagno suggested that undocumented immigrants are voting, saying, “And if you’re illegal, you’re voting a million times, too.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 9/11/24]

After host Sandra Smith called the SAVE Act “pretty reasonable,” Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz inaccurately cited Texas to claim that “there have been thousands of instances” of noncitizen voting. In response to guest and former New York Democratic state senator David Carlucci noted that noncitizen voting is extremely rare, with even the right-wing Heritage Foundation documenting only 25 instances of prosecution for voter fraud in the last 20 years, Chaffetz cited Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) controversial removal of alleged noncitizens from the voter roll. Abbott did not provide any evidence that the alleged noncitizens had voted. [Fox News, America Reports, 9/12/24; CNN, 9/12/24; Houston Chronicle, 8/26/24]