Foreign Nationals Voting in American Elections

Foreign nationals register to vote and cast ballots far more often than you would think. PILF has been documenting this problem over the past decade in states across the country.

We can’t catalog the number of foreigners who never send those requests but remain on the voter rolls. Nobody can because nobody has a single database of citizens or foreigners that can be used for election administration.

This we can say for certain: Foreigners are on the voter rolls across the United States.

How are Foreigners getting on the voter roll?

The number one cause of foreigners getting on voter rolls is Motor Voter. Motor Voter, more formally known as the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), is the federal law that requires state DMV offices to offer voter registration.

The cause for improper registration can arise from something as simple as checking the wrong box or signing the wrong form handed out by a state employee—sometimes in a different language. If an applicant fills out the federal Motor Voter registration form completely, they must be registered to vote, period. States cannot seek documentary proof of citizenship before registering the applicant. Only an honor system prevents foreign citizens from easily registering to vote. All they need to do is mark the box “yes” that they are a United States citizen.

What Congress can do to stop Foreigners from Registering to Vote

Congress can easily solve this problem by allowing states to validate citizenship effectively. This could be as easy as providing a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization certificate when registering to vote.

Another straightforward fix is for Congress to add citizenship to the National Voter Registration Act’s reasonable list maintenance requirements. States would have an obligation to reasonably maintain voter rolls free from foreigners. Currently, the law only requires states to have a “reasonable” program to remove deceased individuals and people who have moved from the voter roll.

We have to change the status quo where a state is required to do nothing under federal law to prevent foreigners from registering to vote. As it stands, the status quo harms citizens and immigrants alike.

REPORTS

We have released reports based on government records from jurisdictions across the county that detail foreign nationals registering to vote and casting ballots in our elections.

Fighting for Transparency Regarding Foreigners’ Voting

PILF has a proven track record of forcing election officials to disclose documents relating to foreigners registering and voting. Under the National Voter Registration Act, the public has a right to inspect these records. We sue states and jurisdictions that refuse to disclose these documents.

Pennsylvania

We are fighting Pennsylvania in federal court to obtain records relating to the registration of foreigners at PennDOT offices for more than two decades.

In 2017, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Robert Torres made the shocking announcement that foreign nationals had been registering to vote in Commonwealth elections for decades.

Al Schmidt, then a member of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, testified before the Pennsylvania Senate that he was briefed by State Department officials on a department study that identified more than 100,000 registered voters who may have lacked U.S. citizenship at the time of their additions to the voter roll. Additionally, Schmidt demanded transparency and called on the department to release the details of their findings to county election boards.

Following Schmidt’s testimony, the Public Interest Legal Foundation requested under the National Voter Registration Act that the State Department provide documents showing the extent of the problem and what was done to fix it. When Torres refused the request, the Foundation sued in federal court.

Five years and three Pennsylvania Secretaries of State later, the Commonwealth is still fighting to keep these records from the public. In an ironic turn of events, the Secretary of State is now Al Schmidt. Where is the transparency he called for in 2017?

Although we won this case in the district court, Secretary Schmidt has appealed it to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Harris County, TX

For years, Harris County election officials had testified before Congress and the Texas Legislature about how various bills could, if enacted, worsen the problem of foreign nationals becoming registered in the Houston area. PILF requested to see records detailing the problem. After the county refused to disclose the records, we sued them for violating the National Voter Registration Act. After two years of litigation and the court’s refusal to dismiss the case, we reached a settlement agreement to receive the records.

Fighting in the Courts to Stop the Left’s Push to Allow Foreigners to Vote

New York City and Washington, D.C. have passed laws allowing foreign nationals to vote in municipal elections. This undermines the meaning of citizenship and is an insult to black Americans who fought to have their voices heard at the ballot box for over a century and to all the people who obeyed our laws and studied to become citizens.

Expanding the electorate to foreign citizens undermines the very notion of citizenship. With citizenship comes loyalty to America and a shared interest in the future of the country. Foreign nationals have no investment in the future of America.

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