September 24, 2024 Dear John, It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in U.S. federal or state elections. There is no evidence that unauthorized immigrants, green-card holders, or immigrants on temporary visas are voting in significant numbers, despite some claims that “millions” of noncitizens are voting in U.S. elections. In fact, audits by election officials and numerous studies reflect that voter fraud by noncitizens is extremely rare. For example, one study that examined voting in 42 U.S. jurisdictions found just .0001% of the 23.5 million votes cast during the 2016 election were of suspected noncitizen voting. Forty of the 42 jurisdictions reported no known incidents of noncitizen voting. A new explainer from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) looks at the evidence regarding noncitizen voting, offering useful information in an accessible way. The explainer also examines the voter registration process and how election officials verify eligibility to vote. Claims that migrants are being allowed into the United States so they can vote rest on the unfounded assumption that immigrants can quickly become voters. But to become U.S. citizens and thus be eligible to vote, immigrants must first receive legal permanent residence (aka getting a green card) and typically spend five years in that status (three if married to a U.S. citizen) before becoming eligible to naturalize. In the case of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, they face a complicated path of a decade or longer to U.S. citizenship and may not ever have any pathway at all. MPI will be issuing explainers on other topics of public interest over the coming weeks. We invite you to read them and share them with your networks. You can find the voting explainer here: www.migrationpolicy.org/content/noncitizen-voting-us-elections. |
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| The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org. |
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