voter registration

Molly Butler / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Right-wing media’s recycled election conspiracy theory: Democrats are using the DMV to facilitate noncitizen voting

Former Trump official: “The DMV’s registering of illegals to vote is being run by Pete Buttigieg, the former military intelligence officer beloved by our CIA Blob class”

Written by Kayla Gogarty & Alex Kaplan

Published

Right-wing media and Republicans have pushed false claims about noncitizens widely voting in elections for years, even though it has long been illegal for noncitizens to make a false claim of citizenship on a voter registration form or to vote in federal elections. As Republicans try to pass the SAVE Act — which would further require voters to provide “documentary proof of United States citizenship” — right-wing figures are now baselessly claiming that state departments of motor vehicles are being used in a scheme to “register illegals to vote” throughout the country, with some suggesting this is part of a conspiracy at the direction of Democrats in the federal government.

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  • Republicans are pushing the SAVE Act by fearmongering about noncitizens voting in elections

    • In May, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require people to provide “documentary proof of United States citizenship” to register to vote. The bill would amend the National Voter Registration Act to mandate “a passport, a photo ID card that proves a voter was born in the U.S. or another form of photo ID along with supporting documentation such as a birth certificate” to register to vote in federal elections, and it would also “require election officials to ask voter registration applicants for proof of citizenship and open them up to legal consequences if they do not.” [Democracy Docket, 5/10/24; Axios, 7/6/24]
    • Promoting the SAVE Act, Johnson, Roy, and Lee fearmongered that noncitizens are voting in elections to justify the bill. During a press conference unveiling the bill, Johnson said, “Even if you weren’t concerned about the drop boxes and the ballot harvesting and the mail-in ballots in 2020, you definitely should be concerned that illegal aliens might be voting in 2024.” Accusing “radical progressive Democrats” of “using open border policies while also attacking election integrity laws to fundamentally remake America,” Roy similarly called to “end the practice of non-citizens voting in our elections.” And in a post on social media promoting the bill, Lee claimed that “the only reason to oppose it is because you want non-Americans illegally voting.” [Fox News, 7/7/24; C-Span, 5/8/24; Twitter/X, 7/8/24]
    • While defending the SAVE Act, Johnson falsely claimed “the millions (of immigrants) that have been paroled can simply go to their local welfare office or the DMV and register to vote.” PolitiFact rated the claim as “false,” explaining that “people’s eligibility for public benefits or driver’s licenses doesn’t mean they’re allowed to register to vote.” Additionally, the outlet noted: “In 1996, Congress banned noncitizen voting in federal elections as part of a broader toughening of penalties for people in the country illegally. States banned it decades earlier.” [Office of House Speaker Mike Johnson, 5/8/24; PolitFact, 5/20/24]

  • Contrary to repeated claims from right-wing sources, noncitizens voting in federal elections is not a problem

    • Right-wing media and conservative organizations have fearmongered about noncitizens registering and voting in U.S. elections for years, but these claims have recently evolved and increased ahead of the 2024 election. More recent claims allege that Democrats are trying to import migrants to vote for them in upcoming elections — evoking the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which claims nonwhite immigrants will be brought in to “replace” white citizens. [Media Matters, 7/14/20, 8/31/21, 10/11/22, 3/4/24, 4/19/24, 6/14/24, 7/3/24; Twitter/X, 7/8/24, 7/8/24]
    • Receiving a voter registration form does not mean someone is registered to vote, and experts say the number of noncitizens who accidentally register to vote when applying for a driver’s license is “minuscule.” Rutgers University professor Lorraine Minnite told PolitiFact that “the most common problem she has seen on the issue is noncitizens getting accidentally registered to vote when they go to the Department of Motor Vehicles. But the number of people who fall into this category is ‘miniscule.’” [PolitiFact, 5/20/24, 4/8/22]
    • It is illegal for noncitizens to make a false claim of citizenship on a voter registration form and to vote in federal elections. As noted by Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Brennan Center Voting Rights Program at New York University’s school of law, “making a false claim of citizenship on a voter registration form is a federal criminal offense that carries steep penalties, including deportation.” [Democracy Docket, 7/9/24; NPR, 4/12/24; PolitiFact, 5/20/24]
    • Numerous studies have shown that instances of noncitizen voting in federal elections are rare. For example, the South Carolina State Election Commission told PolitiFact that “it found no incidents in which non-U.S. citizens with state IDs or driver’s licenses had voted.” Similarly, Georgia reported in 2022 that “1,634 people over 25 years had attempted to register to vote even though they were not U.S. citizens,” according to The Washington Post. “But none had been permitted to register to vote and, thus, had not cast ballots.” [PolitiFact, 5/20/24; The Washington Post, 3/6/24]

  • Right-wing media figures are claiming that noncitizens are registering to vote at the DMV, with some even baselessly saying “Democrats planned this”

    • Former Trump State Department official Mike Benz posted that “the DMV’s registering of illegals to vote is being run by Pete Buttigieg.” Benz — who played a major role spreading misleading claims of censorship in social media research and who previously ran an anonymous white nationalist account — claimed that “the DMV is run by the Department of Transportation. That means the DMV’s registering of illegals to vote is being run by Pete Buttigieg, the former military intelligence officer beloved by our CIA Blob class.” [NBC News, 10/6/23; The New York Times, 3/17/24; Twitter/X, 7/8/24]
    • Chaya Raichik of anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok posted, “Democrats can register illegals to vote through the DMV.” Raichik claimed that “in at least 19 states, undocumented migrants could easily get registered to vote in federal elections as long as they check the U.S. citizen box,” adding, “Democrats planned this of course.” [Twitter/X, 7/9/24]
    • QAnon influencer John Sabal, known online as “QAnon John,” claimed that “EVERY state in the union aside from Arizona is ALLOWING illegal immigrants that have come over the border and register to vote at the local DMV.” Sabal claimed that this meant “OVER 30 MILLION ILLEGALS … are going to be helping the FRAUD machine along this time around.” [Telegram, 6/24/24]
    • Right-wing account End Wokeness claimed that a “worker in Palm Beach is registering voters near the DMV. Proof of citizenship isn’t required.” [Twitter/X, 7/9/24]
    • On Fox’s Hannity, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said that Democrats “want to say you can just attest you are a citizen when you show up at the driver’s license bureau to get a driver’s license. In some states that's all it takes, checking a box and you can vote.” In response, host Sean Hannity claimed, “If they don't want proof of citizenship, voter ID, signature verification — if they don't want these basic integrity measures, you have to ask why. I could only come up with nefarious intentions of some kind.” [Fox News, Hannity, 7/9/24]
    • Right-wing pundit and Tucker Carlson biographer Chadwick Moore posted, “A friend, who is not a US citizen, informed me that California is registering non-citizens, including him, to vote” via the DMV. [Twitter/X, 7/9/24]