A new report says at least 222 noncitizens have registered to vote in Arizona’s Maricopa County since 2015.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation said that the federal motor voter law that allows people to register to vote at their local motor vehicle offices, is partly to blame for the problem.
“Motor Voter leads to problems for immigrants across America. Signing the wrong form at the DMV can haunt you years later when your naturalization process switches to deportation. For 30 years, foreign nationals have been getting registered to vote. Congress must modernize Motor Voter to reflect the technologies and demographics of today,” said J. Christian Adams, the president of the foundation.
Adams said that 222 noncitizens disclosed to local officials that they were on the rolls. Of those, at least nine voted in federal elections.
According to a just released report, 222 Maricopa County voters have self-reported they were registered to vote despite being foreign nationals.
Which begs the question, how many are noncitizens haven’t self-reported they are unlawfully register to vote?https://t.co/5C0AL5fsW0
— Jen Wright (@JenWEsq) April 25, 2023
In a report in The Washington Times, Adams said there is no way to know how many other noncitizens are on the rolls in Maricopa County, which the Times said was America’s fourth most populous county.
“This is just more evidence that there is a problem that is not being adequately addressed,” Adams said.
Adams said that in implementing the law, some states make everyone eligible to vote. The Times notes that in 2019, Pennsylvania found its voter rolls had more than 11,000 noncitizens.
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In North Carolina, the Times reports, voter registration forms had the “citizen” box checked in advance, leading to noncitizens casting votes.
Adams said the issue is not how many noncitizens vote, but that there is not enough protection written in the motor voter law to prevent noncitizens from getting on voting rolls in the first place.
“When you have a failure in the system, whether or not it’s rampant doesn’t matter when it involves foreigners voting in American elections,” he said.
“If this problem had been detected 10 years ago, or maybe 15 years ago, I think there would have been a quick bipartisan fix in Congress,” he said. “But the Democrats have become so radicalized now about every voting issue in Congress.”
Ohio has taken action to address the concern, according to WTOL-TV.
A new law that took effect April 7 puts the label “noncitizen” on driver’s licenses issued to those who are not American citizens while also requiring ID to be shown at a polling place.
“I can tell you from my experience at the attorney general’s office that while voter fraud cases are indeed rare, the overwhelming majority of such cases involve noncitizen voting, sometimes even at the BMV through the motor-voter program; circumstances would then cascade when the application proceeds without catching that the applicant was a noncitizen, and the individual would eventually be sent a notice of their neighborhood polling place and be encouraged to cast a vote, leading some to do so and eventually being identified as an illegal noncitizen voter,” said Dan Tierney, a representative for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Virginia discovers nearly 19,000 dead people on voter rollshttps://t.co/Z7tkJVwn3t https://t.co/jRA3KEQqC2
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) April 20, 2023
Voter registration rolls are not always updated, as WTOP-TV reported.
Virginia recently found 18,990 supposed voters on its rolls by checking death records that went back to 1960.
“I knew that there was something there, but I didn’t know that it was this big,” Virginia Elections Commissioner Susan Beals said.
