Noncitizen Voting: A Non-Issue in Pennsylvania
November 10, 2024
By: Natalie Hatton
In the presidential debate in Philadelphia in September, former President and Republican candidate Trump claimed that Democrats are bringing noncitizens into the country in order to vote in the November general election: “They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in, practically. And these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them into our country.”
Of course, noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections – it is illegal in every state. In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which prohibits noncitizens from voting. Penalties for violators are severe: fines, prison time, and serious immigration consequences like deportation and permanent ineligibility to naturalize. While a few municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, it is still illegal in federal elections.
Research also shows that noncitizen voting is extremely rare: in 2016, noncitizen voting made up 0.0001 percent of all votes cast. But misinformation persists, posing a real threat to noncitizens and undermining faith in election administration. Indeed, recent polling suggests that 52% of respondents (81% of whom were Republicans) are concerned about noncitizen voting in the 2024 election.
This baseless theory is not new. Trump blamed noncitizen voting for his loss of the popular vote in 2016 and his loss of Arizona in 2020. But in 2024, the theory has pervaded all levels of government. At the federal level, House Republicans introduced a bill requiring documentation of citizenship to register to vote. And at the state level, eight states have it on the ballot this November.
In Pennsylvania, a key swing state in 2024, noncitizens are not permitted to vote. Under the state constitution, “[e]very citizen 21 years of age … shall be entitled to vote at all elections … [provided that h]e or she shall have been a citizen of the United States at least one month.”
Nor is noncitizen voting a major problem in Pennsylvania. A representative for the Pennsylvania Department of State recently told the AP that they are “not aware of any instances of noncitizens registering to vote or voting in any recent elections.” In elections from 2000 to 2017, Pennsylvania elections officials have only identified 544 votes cast by noncitizen voters – 544 out of 93 million.
Nevertheless, Republican State Representative Ryan Warner recently introduced legislation to amend Pennsylvania law to require proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The bill would require local election officials to cross-reference voter rolls with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure registered voters are citizens. However, DHS keeps no such lists. This bill represents the fine line between ensuring legitimate elections and voter suppression. Requiring proof of citizenship may prevent ineligible voters from voting, but it may also dissuade, confuse, and hinder citizens from voting.
The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken on this precise issue. In 2013, in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, the Court held that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) pre-empted states from imposing additional, more burdensome requirements on voter registration. Arizona’s state legislature had passed a proof of citizenship requirement, similar to that proposed in Pennsylvania. This would have meant certain voters – those who are citizens but don’t have proof of citizenship – would meet the federal requirements to vote, but not the state’s. The Constitution provides that while states may determine the time, place, and manner of elections, Congress retains the power to pre-empt those states’ laws. The Court held that is precisely what the NVRA does here: “When Congress legislates with respect to the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ of holding congressional elections, it necessarily displaces some element of a pre-existing legal regime erected by the States.”
The bottom line is that noncitizen voting in Pennsylvania is already illegal, and it has been proven not to be a major problem. The persistence of misinformation and the proliferation of this theory pose a real threat to eligible voters’ ability to participate in elections.