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Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo has spread a conspiracy theory about voting security over 20 times in recent months

Media Matters found more than 20 instances of Bartiromo spreading the debunked conspiracy theory that many noncitizens may be voting in the 2024 election. She was heavily involved in pushing Dominion conspiracy theories four years ago.

Written by Isabella Corrao & Alicia Sadowski

Research contributions from Media Matters Staff

Published

Since August 1, Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo is spreading conspiracy theories and false narratives about voting, often focusing on elections being completely insecure and rife with noncitizens voting. In fact, noncitizen voting is both already illegal and extremely rare. Even the MAGA Heritage Foundation has only found 68 total cases of noncitizen voting going back to the earliest cases documented in the 1980s.

Previously, Bartiromo was a pivotal player in Fox pushing false claims about Dominion Voting Systems that led to a lawsuit, which cost Fox Corp. nearly $800 million.

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  • Maria Bartiromo was heavily involved in the Dominion lawsuit

    • In March of 2021, Dominion Voting Systems, one of the companies responsible for ballot machines during the 2020 presidential election, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. Fox hosts, contributors, and guests suggested that “Dominion machines supposedly changed or deleted votes to sway the election in President Joe Biden’s favor.” [Media Matters, 2/27/23]
    • Fox executives, hosts, and producers admitted that Fox knew they were pushing lies. They ultimately continued to lie to help the network’s bottom line out of fear that other right-wing news sources would capture Fox’s viewers if they admitted the truth. [Media Matters, 2/28/23]
    • Bartiromo was a major conduit for conspiracy theories following the 2020 presidential election. In one morning alone, there were four segment blocks focusing on the Trump team’s allegations that software “backdoors” in the vote-counting machines were used to change votes, that “the 2020 election will be overturned,” that the certification process of the election might be delayed, and that some state governors have received financial kickbacks through payments to their families. [Media Matters, 11/16/20]
    • Fox News executives called out Bartiromo specifically for her involvement in pushing these narratives about Dominion. When Bartiromo interviewed Trump lawyer Sidney Powell about “voting irregularities,” Bartiromo was aware that Powell would “respond with conspiracy theories about Dominion.” Bartiromo gave credibility to Powell’s “far-fetched claims.” [Media Matters, 2/16/23, 2/22/23]
    • Bartiromo's source for an election conspiracy theory in 2020: “The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it." A filing in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News revealed that after the 2020 presidential election, Powell sent Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo “far-fetched claims” based on “an email entitled ‘Election Fraud Info’ Powell had received from a 'source' which the author herself describes as ‘pretty wackadoodle.’” Yet Bartiromo “gave them credibility” on her show. The single source also claimed, “I was internally decapitated, and yet, I live….The Wind tells me I’m a ghost, but I don’t believe it.” [Media Matters, 2/16/23]

  • In the months before the election, Bartiromo has repeatedly spread noncitizen voting conspiracy theories relating to the 2024 elections

    • Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo cited a debunked video that she claimed “reveals 14 percent of illegal immigrants admitted that they are registered to vote.” The New York Times reported that “state investigators found no evidence that any of the seven people on the tape had ever registered to vote.” [Fox Business, 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]
    • Bartiromo announced that the Republican National Committee is “demanding transparency and election integrity, filing lawsuits and hiring new staffers to help clean up the voter rolls.” She added, “Congresswoman Claudia Tenney says many illegals are apparently already registered to vote.” [Fox Business, Sunday Morning Futures, 8/11/24]
    • Bartiromo repeated a thirdhand claim of “illegals” getting registered to vote at the Department of Motor Vehicles: “Apparently, the DMV offices right now are packed with illegals right now trying to get driver's licenses … in very short order after coming into the country. They want to get them naturalized as soon as possible before the election.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 8/19/24; Media Matters, 8/20/24]
    • Bartiromo praised Republican officials for purging voter rolls in order to ensure that “illegals are not getting registered to vote.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 8/28/24]
    • Agreeing with Republican lawmakers, Bartiromo said that “we have a wide-open border” for undocumented immigrants to enter the U.S. because “Democrats want them to become voters.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 8/29/24]
    • Bartiromo promoted the SAVE Act as a method to “secure the upcoming election by preventing noncitizens from voting.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/3/24]
    • Again, Bartiromo claimed that the SAVE Act “would help secure the upcoming election by preventing non-citizens from voting.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/3/24]
    • Bartiromo asked Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY): “The ballots getting in the box — how many of the ballots are illegals registering to vote? What's your take?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/3/24]
    • Bartiromo mentioned that the SAVE Act should be brought to the Senate floor to “help secure the upcoming election by preventing noncitizens from voting.” She included: “I don't understand why Chuck Schumer would not want to ensure that only American citizens are voting in the upcoming election. What’s the problem there?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/4/24]
    • Bartiromo: “You would think that the Democrats want American citizens to vote, right, so why won’t they just bring the SAVE Act to the floor in the Senate?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/4/24]
    • After promoting the SAVE Act as a method to “help secure the upcoming election by preventing noncitizens from voting,” Bartiromo asked Senator Rick Scott if he has “any evidence of illegals getting registered to vote right now.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/4/24]
    • While commenting on Democrats’ rejection of the SAVE Act, Bartiromo said: “I don't understand why the Democrats are against ensuring that American citizens are voting.” She also commented: “It’s really something … that the Democrats keep digging in, I mean, even Merrick Garland said that he vows to stop any voter ID for an election. Why?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/5/24]
    • Bartiromo asked Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) if he has “evidence of illegals in this country getting registered to vote in the upcoming presidential election?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/5/24]
    • Bartiromo insisted that “the most important issue” is to “secure the election” and “ensure only American citizens are voting,” which she again asserted could be only accomplished by linking a continuing resolution to the SAVE Act. [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/5/24]
    • Bartiromo asked Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump how Republicans can ensure a free and fair election when there is a “potential for illegals in this country getting registered to vote.” Bartiromo and Trump also pushed for more Republicans to become poll watchers because “in many sites, they were choosing just a handful of Republicans and dominant Democrats to be those poll watchers.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/5/24]
    • Bartiromo praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ focus on preventing noncitizens from voting: “You should be praised for how adamant you have been.” [Fox Business, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/15/24]
    • Interviewing Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bartiromo asked: “How confident are you that we will have a fair and transparent election in November?” She continued, “What do you think about the potential of illegals getting registered to vote?” [Fox Business, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/22/24]
    • Bartiromo expressed doubt that Oregon “made a mistake” in registering non-immigrants to vote: “Oh, okay. Yeah, right.” Nine people who potentially voted in a past election without confirmed citizenship “represent a tiny fraction of the state’s 3 million voters.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/17/24; Associated Press, 9/24/24]
    • Bartiromo suggested that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is responsible for “a wide-open border, which has led to illegals registered to vote.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/17/24]
    • After mentioning House Republicans questioning the Small Business Administration on its “alleged efforts to register voters in Democrat heavy areas of Michigan,” Bartiromo claimed that “a lot of Republicans are saying that illegals coming from the open border are now being given driver’s licenses and wanting to get registered to vote.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/18/24]
    • Bartiromo mentioned that “there are illegals registered to vote” that “could sway the election” as a point of worry. [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/19/24]
    • Bartiromo noted that Democrats “refuse to just live by the letter of the law” since “noncitizens are not supposed to vote in national federal elections, okay, and yet, they refuse to agree to the SAVE Act.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 9/23/24]
    • Interviewing Donald Trump Jr., Bartiromo questioned: “Do you believe that the GOP and the RNC has done enough to protect fair elections?” Trump, Jr. responded: “They don't want to take people who are known noncitizens, people who are legally not allowed to vote – they want to make sure that we can't take them off the roster.” [Fox Business, Sunday Morning Futures, 9/29/24]
    • Bartiromo asked RNC Chairman Michael Whatley about a Gateway Pundit story which suggested that noncitizens may be registered to vote in Arizona. [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 10/1/24; Gateway Pundit, 9/18/24; 10/3/24]
    • Bartiromo used a DHS Office of the Inspector General report that broadly discussed  “risks associated” with undocumented immigration to basely fearmonger  that noncitizens were voting in US elections. She misinterpreted the report to claim: “‘Oh, all these agencies failed to assess the risk of letting in all these people without ID.’ Are we going to get this kind of a report in four years about how we allowed all these illegals to vote? Oh, what are we going to hear in three or four years about having illegals vote since they just go crazy if you take out your ID?” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 10/3/24; Department of Homeland Security, Final Report, 9/30/24]
    • Bartiromo called Democrats a threat to democracy because “they want to keep the border open for illegals and get them to register to vote.” She continued, “Look what just happened in California, they banned voter ID.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 10/9/24]

  • Bartiromo promoted the SAVE Act under the guise that noncitizen voting will be rampant in 2024 elections

    • Republicans claim that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or the SAVE Act, would “bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections.” This is already illegal and extremely rare. [Media Matters, 9/4/24, 9/11/24]
    • Civil rights groups have said the SAVE Act may “intimidate members of immigrant communities and communities of color from exercising their lawful right to vote.” [Media Matters, 7/9/24, 9/11/24]
    • This bill was partly crafted and supported by Project 2025 architects, who claim that “it is undeniable that the current voting system allows non-citizens to register and vote.” Heritage Action for America Executive Vice President Ryan Walker said the legislation was a “very reasonable ask.” [Media Matters, 9/11/24]
    • Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) was pushing to link the SAVE Act to the continuing resolution that would fund the government into the new year, but the House rejected to link it. [Media Matters, 9/4/24, 9/11/24; Associated Press, 9/18/24]

  • Noncitizen voting is a nonissue

    • 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]