Can illegal immigrants really vote in U.S. elections?

Donald Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly claimed that Democrats plan to allow illegal immigrants to vote in U.S. elections.

“We had a bad election with a lot of illegal immigrants coming in and they were trying to get them to vote,” Trump said during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

BBC verify has uncovered more than 100 paid ads on Facebook and Instagram by Republicans on the issue since early September.

It is illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in national elections, but research shows it is very rare for that to actually happen.

this Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 Ban non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, from voting in federal elections.

Penalties include a year in jail, fines, and possible deportation.

Every state is Requires universal registration The form asks people to confirm they are U.S. citizens, and false statements are punishable under penalty of perjury, but no documentation is required.

“The first step, having to check a box to say you are a citizen in order to register to vote, is an illegal step,” said Jasleen Singh, a voting expert at Brennan, a liberal policy think tank. It’s a huge deterrent for immigrants because the risk of lying is huge.

In many states, electoral rolls are cross-referenced with citizenship and immigration services, death certificates and postal records to ensure that people who are noncitizens, dead or living out of state are not registered to vote.

“When it comes to voting, there is a list of eligible voters, and if non-citizens show up, they will be rejected or told to cast a provisional ballot, which will only be accepted if they can provide proof of citizenship,” Luo said. Ronald Hayduk, voting rights expert at San Francisco State University.

Non-citizens are also not allowed to vote in statewide elections.

However, some cities in California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington, D.C., do allow them to vote in certain local elections, such as school board elections.

Multiple studies by conservative and left-wing organizations have shown that it is extremely rare for illegal immigrants to vote in U.S. federal elections.

The Brennan Center for Justice interviewed 44 election officials working in 12 states during the 2016 election.

The study found that of the 23.5 million votes counted in these states, An estimated 30 suspected non-citizen voting incidents were referred for further investigation.

This represents approximately 0.0001% of all votes cast.

Analyze a Collect database of electoral fraud cases The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, found 77 instances of non-citizen voting between 1999 and 2023.

Numerous other reports, including one by the conservative think tank Cato Institute titled “Non-citizens do not vote illegally in detectable numbers”, reaching similar conclusions.

“According to many sources of evidence, the number of noncitizens who vote in elections is very small,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who has authored numerous reports on voter fraud.

“It’s not zero, and some people are missing it for various reasons, but it’s nowhere near the level that would affect the outcome of the election.”

The Securing American Voters Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a Republican proposal that would have required people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote, has died in the House.

Republican lawmakers continue to push for more citizenship requirements.

“We have a number of states that have audited their voter rolls and found thousands of non-citizens,” House Republican Leader Mike Johnson told CNN.

He highlighted Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia — three states where polls show a tight race between Trump and Kamala Harris.

In Ohio, State Republican officials demand reviewThe investigation found that out of about 8 million registered voters, 597 cases had been submitted for “further review and possible prosecution” of non-citizens registered to vote.

In Pennsylvania, an electronic touch screen at a state driver’s license center malfunctioned, incorrectly showing non-citizens the option to register to vote when getting a new or updated driver’s license.

This glitch occurred between 2006 and 2017 and has now been resolved.

2017, Pennsylvania election officials say Since 2000, non-citizen immigrants may have cast 544 votes illegally out of more than 93 million votes cast.

In Georgia, 2022 Electoral Roll Review It found that out of approximately 7 million registered voters, 1,634 people “tried to register to vote” but “could not be verified.”

“Voter fraud and illegal immigrant voting are extremely rare, and this rumor is intended to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and lay the groundwork for doubting the outcome,” Ms. Singer said.

BBC verify has identified 118 paid ads on Facebook and Instagram posted by Republican candidates or Republican political groups since 1 September that claim widespread voter registration for non-citizens, or raise the question of whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote in the election.

The ads we found had between 7.8 and 9 million impressions on the platform.

One, with more than 2.4 million views, invited users to participate in a poll asking: “Should illegal immigrants be allowed to vote?”

Another ad posted by Congresswoman Ann Wagner, which invited users to answer the same question, was viewed more than 900,000 times.

Additional reporting by Maryam Ahmed.