Politics
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Election officials in all 50 states urged to halt non-citizen voter registration: ‘Time to act is now’

By
Josh Christenson
Published June 24, 2024, 4:23 p.m. ET

A conservative legal group fired off letters to officials in every state in the country Monday urging them to enforce existing laws that prevent non-US citizens from registering to vote or casting ball🌄ots in elections, The Post can exclusive🉐ly reveal.

America First Legal (AFL) wrote to chief elections officers, secretaries of state, attorneys general, lieutenant governors and governors on Monday, calling on them to verify immigration statuses on voter rolls u𝐆sing Department of Homeland Security data — and boot any non-Americans they find.

“If DHS fails to respond to an inquiry, you can sue in federal court to obtain the necessary information that Congress has required DH𝔉S to provi༒de,” AFL Executive Director Gene Hamilton said in the letter.

Migrants from Venezuela cross the Rio Grande to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting asylum in the United States.
America First Legal fired off letters to officials from every state in the country urging them to enforce existing laws to prevent non-US citizens from registering to vote or casting ballots in elections, The Post can exclusively reveal. Shutterstock / David Peinado Romero

“Given widespread public concern over the presence of foreign nationals on voter rolls in jurisdictions across the United States and unprecedented levels of 🌠illegal immigration across our southern border since January 20, 2021, the time to act is now,” he added.

Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states must provide applicants🌳 for welfare benefits with voter registration forms that do not require proof of US citizenship.

The US Election Assistance Commission sheet only asks for a si🌟gned attestation, under penalty of perjury, that the applicant is 💜a citizen.

A woman fills out a form at the Sacramento County welfare office in California.
America First Legal wrote to every state’s secretary of state, attorney general and governor on Monday, calling on them to verify immigration statuses on voter rolls using Department of Homeland Security data — and kick non-citizens off. AP

It is illegal for foreign nationals to register to vote or cast ballots in federal e🎶lections, but tens of thousands of non-citizens have been discovered on voter rolls, recent have shown.

Hundreds ha🦹ve later ended up voting ꧒without being discovered beforehand — not nearly enough to decide election results even in .

But at least 8 million more migrants are expected to be living in the US by October of this year, many of whom 🍸are eligible for welfare benefits that would put them within re𝔍ach of voter registration opportunities.

A view of a sign for the Department of Motor Vehicles in Los Angeles, California.
Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, states provide applicants for welfare benefits and driver’s licenses, among others, with federal voter registration forms that do not require proof of US citizenship. Shutterstock / The Image Party

AFL President Stephen Miller in a statement accused the 💛Biden administration of a “direct effort to sabotage the 2024 election through potential mass illegal alien voting.”

A little more than half of non-citizens (59%) take advantage of at least one major federal welfare benefit, 💧such as the (SNAP), according t൲o Census Bureau data .

Nineteen states and Washington, DC, also allow non-citizens to obtain driver’s 🗹licenses, a move that Biden backed during his 2020 presidential campaign.

Former White House Senior Advisor and Director of Speechwriting Steven Miller speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on July 11, 2021 in Dallas, Texas.
America First Legal President Stephen Miller in a statement called it a “direct effort to sabotage the 2024 election through potential mass illegal alien voting.” Getty Images

When tryi꧂ng to verify whether a person is a non-citizen who has registered to🐈 vote, state officials have also been hampered by being unable to submit driver’s license numbers or other easily identifiable information to DHS.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) processes its own agency’s identifier numbers, Form I-94 arrival or departure numbers, Student and Exchange Vis♋itor Information System (SEVIS) ID numbers, naturalization cards, visa numbers or foreign passport numbers — none of which are requested o🤡n voter registration forms.

On top of that, just five US states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and Virginia — are coordinating with CIS through memoranda of understanding to verify the citizenship status of voter registration ap💫plicants.

House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) questions U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during a committee hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on June 04, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Another piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, would change the federal forms to include proof of citizenship questions in the future. Getty Images

But the Help America Vote Act of 2002, according to Hamilton’s letter, requires officials to “perform list ඣmaintenance” of ⭕voter rolls to ensure their accuracy, which can be accomplished using DHS’ Person Centric Query System database.

“It allows agency employees to look up individuals and quickly 𒊎and easily verify their citizenship status using only a name and date of birth,” wrote Hamilton.

“This means that, right 🧔now, DHS can answer all inquiries from State and local elections officials about the citizenship status of all presently registered voters and all persons attempting to register to vote and do so at no cost 💮to the States.”

Another piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE🐲) Act, sailed through committee deliberation in the House and could come up soon for a full floor vote, forcing registration forms to include proof of citizenship questions in the future.