WASHINGTON (AP) — The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to require proof of citizenship for voter registration, a proposal that Republicans have made a priority as an election-year issue even though studies have shown that noncitizens illegally register and vote in federal elections are extremely rare.
The bill was approved mostly along party lines, but with five Democrats voting in favor, it is unlikely to pass the Democratic-led Senate. Strongly opposed That’s because safeguards already exist to enforce laws banning foreigners from voting.
Still, the House vote will be an opportunity for Republicans to focus attention on two of their top issues this year: border and election security.
It also provides an opportunity to refuel Former President Donald Trump’s claims Democrats are encouraging a surge in immigrants and trying to get them to register to vote, which is illegal: foreigners are not allowed to vote in federal elections, much less statewide elections.
Investigations and audits in some states have found cases of foreign nationals registering to vote and voting, but this is rare and usually due to mistake. Each state has mechanisms to check this, but there is no standard procedure that all states follow.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, the bill’s lead sponsor, said at a press conference earlier this week that Democratic opposition means many Democrats “want illegal immigrants to participate in federal elections and to vote.”
In his speech on Wednesday, Trump called the vote a “generation-defining moment.”
“If just a small percentage, just a small percentage, of the illegal immigrants that Joe Biden brought here to vote, that voted, that wouldn’t just change one race,” he said. “It could potentially change all of our races.”
Speaking on his Truth Social platform this week, President Trump suggested Democrats were trying to give voting rights to non-citizen immigrants, and urged Republicans to pass the American Voter Eligibility Protection Act or “go home and cry yourself to sleep.”
Foreigners’ obsession with voting is a broader, longer-term concern. Trump’s Election Strategy Trump has made it clear that he would call into question the legitimacy of the election if he loses, a claim he has made at campaign rallies this year. “The only way they’re going to beat us is by cheating,” he told supporters in Las Vegas last month. It’s also part of the Republican Party’s election strategy. Republicans across the country Pass a state bill to include a measure regarding foreign voting on the state ballot in November.
Vincente Gonzalez, one of the Democrats who voted in favor of the Republican bill, said he only voted in favor because the bill was destined to fail in the Senate.
“This bill isn’t going anywhere,” said Gonzalez, who represents a competitive border district in Texas. “It’s nothing more than a Republican messaging bill.”
Most Democrats and voting rights advocates say the law is unnecessary because it is already a felony for foreigners to register to vote in federal elections, punishable by fines, imprisonment and deportation. Anyone who registers must attest, under penalty of perjury, that they are a U.S. citizen. Foreigners are also not allowed to vote at the state level. A few municipalities Allowing people to vote in some local elections.
They also said that millions of Americans Not easily accessible The bill would require current proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, naturalization certificate or passport, and could therefore bar U.S. citizen voters who cannot further prove their identity from voting.
During floor debate Wednesday, Rep. Joe Morrell of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, expressed concern that the bill would disenfranchise a range of Americans.
He cited military personnel stationed overseas who can’t show proof of citizenship in person at a polling office, married women whose names have been changed, Native Americans whose place of birth isn’t listed on their tribal ID, and survivors of natural disasters who have lost personal documents.
Morrell said he believes the bill is not an attempt to preserve voter rolls, but part of a larger Republican-led plan to call into question the legitimacy of the upcoming election.
“The false allegation that there is a conspiracy to register foreigners is a pretext to try to overturn the 2024 elections and potentially cause another tragedy on January 6, 2025,” he said.
But Republicans who support the bill An unprecedented surge in migrants Crossing the US-Mexico border illegally poses far too many risks for foreigners to slip through loopholes and cast votes that could determine the outcome of November’s election.
“Any illegal vote invalidates the vote of any lawful American citizen,” said Rep. Brian Steele of Wisconsin, Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee.
If passed, the bill would remove noncitizens from state voter rolls, require new applicants to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, and require states to establish procedures for applicants who cannot provide proof of citizenship to provide evidence other than proof of citizenship, although it is unclear what that evidence would include.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently 137 foreign suspects found He said that of the nearly eight million candidates on the state’s voter roll, at least one million are absent and steps are being taken to verify and remove them.
In 2022, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, audit He scrutinized state voter rolls, looking specifically for foreign nationals. His office found that 1,634 people had tried to register to vote over a 25-year period, but election officials caught every application and failed to register anyone.
A 2016 North Carolina election audit found that 41 legal immigrants Of the 4.8 million votes cast, those who were not yet citizens cast ballots that had no impact on any state elections.
In a written statement supporting the bill, Johnson cited other examples of foreigners who had been removed from the rolls in Boston and Virginia.
Several secretaries of state interviewed during a summer meeting in Puerto Rico this week said out-of-state people trying to register and vote is not a major issue in the state.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections, said she supports the bill in concept but cautioned that aggressive purging of voter rolls could remove eligible voters in some cases.
A few years ago, everyone in her family received a mail-in ballot for a city council election except for her: She had been removed from the rolls because she was born in the Netherlands, where her father was stationed in the U.S. Air Force.
“I was lieutenant governor, I oversaw elections, and I was removed from that position because I was born in the Netherlands,” she said, “so I think there are definitely checks and balances in Utah, probably to an extreme degree.”
The House vote was Republican National Committee Republicans released their party platform, emphasizing border security and taking a stance against Democrats’ push to give “voting rights” to immigrants living in the country illegally. Republicans are expected to highlight concerns about immigration and election integrity at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week.
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Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report.
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