There is evidence of illegal immigrants voting. Several large-scale studies have confirmed this.

MYTH: There’s little to no evidence that there is widespread voter fraud by illegal immigrants; and even if there is evidence, it doesn’t happen at a scale large enough to influence the outcome of an election.

REALITY: It’s false to say that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud by illegal immigrants. Numerous studies show that a considerable percentage of illegal immigrants vote in national or presidential elections.

Various studies indicate that somewhere between 2.1% to 6.4% of voter-aged illegal immigrants vote in national, state, or presidential elections.

There are an estimated 10.5 to 15.5 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and a majority of illegal immigrants are of voting age. If between 2.1% to 6.4% of voter-aged illegal immigrants are voting, then that’s enough votes to influence the outcome of an election.

In addition, a majority of Americans don’t support noncitizens voting and believe they do. For that reason alone we should be taking this seriously; but when you combine that with the fact that numerous studies show that illegal immigrants vote, it’s even more serious. It is false to say that there’s little to no evidence of large-scale voting by illegal immigrants.

(Check below for all the studies and data)

OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY AND GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

According to a 2014 study by professors at Old Dominion University and George Mason University, 6.4% of noncitizens voted in 2008 and 2.2% voted in 2010.

In addition, the survey also found that 80% of noncitizens voted in favor of Democrats.

Many have objected to this study. Critics of the study claim that the study had a small sample size and that there were sampling errors. The authors dispute these objections and claim the study was large and accounted for sampling errors. There is a back-and-forth debate about the legitimacy of the study, but other studies have concluded similar results.

MCLAUGHLIN AND ASSOCIATES STUDY

According to an extensive 2013 survey, conducted by pollster McLaughlin & Associates, 13% of noncitizens reported that they were registered to vote.

AMERICAS MAJORITY FOUNDATION STUDY

According to a survey conducted by Americas Majority Foundation, 2.1% of noncitizens voted in the 2016 election.

PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FOUNDATION REPORT #1

According to a report by the Public Legal Foundation, between 2006 and 2018, 3,100 illegal immigrants were registered to vote in over a dozen sanctuary jurisdictions.

PUBLIC INTEREST LEGAL FOUNDATION REPORT #2

A second report by the Public Interest Legal Foundation found, that in Virginia, more than 1,000 noncitizens had been removed from the voter registration database in eight counties.

A follow-up to that study titled “Alien Invasion II: The Sequel to the Discovery and Cover-up of Non-Citizen Registration and Voting in Virginia” stated, “5,556 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls for citizenship problems in 120 of Virginia’s 133 voting jurisdictions since 2011. In 102 of these jurisdictions, 1,852 individuals cast 7,474 ballots before election officials canceled their registrations. In the other 13 voting jurisdictions, election officials have not removed a single record from the voter rolls because of citizenship problems in over 6 years.”

U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE DATA

According to Hans A. von Spakovsky, a contributor for the Heritage Foundation, “In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that up to 3 percent of the 30,000 individuals called for jury duty from voter registration rolls over two years in just one U.S. district court were not U.S. citizens.”

2019: THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS REGISTERED TO VOTE IN PENNSYLVANIA

In January 2019, a Pennsylvania state legislator ordered Harrisburg to remove 11,198 noncitizens from the voting rolls. The state confirmed that the noncitizens, were in fact, registered to vote, despite their ineligibility.

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS DON’T SUPPORT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS VOTING

According to a 2018 survey, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling, 71 percent of respondents were opposed to San Francisco allowing illegal immigrants to vote in municipal school board elections.

That being said, according to results of a 2015 Rasmussen Reports survey, “Fifty-three percent (53%) of Democrats think tax-paying illegal immigrants should have the right to vote.”

A MAJORITY OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THERE ARE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS VOTING

According to a Cato Institute 2021 Immigration and Identity National Survey, 51% of Americans believe that illegal immigrants vote in elections.

Another study had the results a little lower. According to a study by Pollfish, over a third of respondents believe that non-citizen immigrants vote in meaningful amounts.

PEW RESEARCH CENTER STUDY

According to a 2012 Pew Research study, 1 out of every 8 voter registrations is inaccurate.

In 2016, Hans A. von Spakovsky, a from the Heritage Foundation, stated, “The Obama Justice Department has refused to file a single lawsuit to enforce the requirement of the National Voter Registration Act that states maintain the accuracy of their voter-registration lists. This is despite a 2012 study from the Pew Center on the States estimating that one out of every eight voter registrations is inaccurate, out-of-date, or duplicate. About 2.8 million people are registered in more than one state, according to the study, and 1.8 million registered voters are dead. In most places, it’s easy to vote under the names of such people with little risk of detection.”

FAKE DOCUMENTS AND IDENTIFICATION CARDS

According to data from the INS Employment Verification Process Report (1999), a “large numbers of unauthorized aliens are obtaining jobs through the widespread use of fraudulent documents.”

Similarly, a 2002 U.S. Government Accountability Office investigation found that “the use of fraudulent documents by aliens is extensive.”

In 1998, immigration officials in Los Angeles seized nearly two million counterfeit documents.

SOURCES

Richman, J. T., Chattha, G. A., & Earnest, D. C. (2014). Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections? Electoral Studies, 36, 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2014.09.001

Huennekenson, P. (2018, October 29). Aliens and voter fraud. Center for Immigration Studies . Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://cis.org/Huennekens/Aliens-and-Voter-Fraud

Gov’t Accountability Office, Elections: Additional Data Could Help State and Local Election Officials Maintain Accurate Voter Registration Lists 42 (2005).

Spakovsky, H. A. von. (2016, December 15). Do illegal votes decide elections? The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/commentary/do-illegal-votes-decide-elections

Spakovsky, H. A. von. (2017, February 8). Why Trump’s probe of voter fraud is long overdue. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/why-trumps-probe-voter-fraud-long-overdue

Spakovsky, H. A. von. (2008, July 10). The threat of non-citizen voting. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.heritage.org/report/the-threat-non-citizen-voting#_ftn1

Noncitizens, voting violations and U.S. elections: Federation for American Immigration Reform. Federation for American Immigration Reform . (2020, July). Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.fairus.org/issue/societal-impact/noncitizens-voting-violations-and-us-elections#_edn2

Gibbs, J. (2016, October 18). Voter fraud is real. here’s The proof. The Federalist. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://thefederalist.com/2016/10/13/voter-fraud-real-heres-proof/

Agresti, J. D. (2020, November 8). Quantifying Illegal Votes Cast by Non-Citizens in the Battleground States of the 2020 Presidential Election. Just Facts. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.justfactsdaily.com/quantifying-illegal-votes-cast-by-non-citizens-in-the-battleground-states-of-the-2020-presidential-election

Camarota, S. A., & Zeigler, K. (2022, March 29). Estimating the illegal immigrant population using the current population survey. Center for Immigration Studies . Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://cis.org/Report/Estimating-Illegal-Immigrant-Population-Using-Current-Population-Survey

Scarborough, R., & Dinan, S. (2019, January 30). Pennsylvania admits to 11,000 noncitizens registered to vote. The Washington Times . Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jan/30/pennsylvania-11000-non-citizens-registered-vote/

Profile of the unauthorized population – US. Migration Policy Institute . (2022, May 1). Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/unauthorized-immigrant-population/state/US

Lopez, M. H., Passel, J. S., & Cohn, D. V. (2021, April 13). Key facts about the changing U.S. unauthorized immigrant population. Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/04/13/key-facts-about-the-changing-u-s-unauthorized-immigrant-population/

Kamarck, E., & Stenglein, C. (2020, October 27). How many undocumented immigrants are in the United States and who are they? The Brookings Institution . Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/how-many-undocumented-immigrants-are-in-the-united-states-and-who-are-they/

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Corbett-Davies, S., Konitzer, T., & Rothschild, D. (2021, December 7). Analysis | poll: 60% of Republicans believe illegal immigrants vote; 43% believe people vote using dead people’s names. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/24/poll-60-of-republicans-believe-illegal-immigrants-vote-43-believe-people-vote-using-dead-peoples-names/