BS BULLETIN:
- More than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens have mistakenly been added to voter rolls across multiple states since 2000, according to a Reuters review.
- Software glitches and government clerical errors were responsible for many of the registrations; Reuters could not determine how many of those people actually voted.
- Sen. Mike Lee says the findings strengthen his case for the stalled SAVE America Act.
Sen. Mike Lee has a question for Washington after more than 30,000 noncitizens mistakenly ended up registered to vote:
How many times does something have to happen before politicians stop saying the system already works?
The Utah Republican unloaded on the Senate floor after a Reuters investigation found more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens had been erroneously added to voter rolls since 2000.
“That thing that they claim never happens, voter fraud or noncitizen voting, just keeps happening over and over and over again,” Lee said.
The underlying Reuters investigation found mistakes across states governed by both parties, including California, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
The causes weren’t primarily people sneaking into registration offices and pretending to be Americans.
They were government screwups.
Software glitches and clerical mistakes involving driver’s license and state ID applications resulted in people being registered despite identifying themselves as noncitizens.
New Jersey produced one of the most eye-popping examples.
The state disclosed this summer that a technology glitch resulted in roughly 6,600 self-identified noncitizens being added to voter rolls between June 2023 and June 2024 — even though those individuals had answered “no” when asked whether they were U.S. citizens.
Fox News reported that fewer than 400 of those individuals cast ballots. State officials said 35 noncitizens cast ballots that were counted in the 2024 general election, out of more than 1.6 million votes cast statewide.
Reuters said it could not determine how many of the more than 30,000 people identified nationwide actually voted, and noted that some state figures remain tentative or subject to revision.
Lee argues that the cases expose a weakness in a system that frequently relies on people attesting to their eligibility.
He is pushing the SAVE America Act, which passed the House but has stalled in the Senate. The measure would require proof of citizenship when registering and photo identification at the polls. President Donald Trump supports the legislation.
Lee noted that customers can be required to show identification for an all-you-can-eat restaurant promotion and argued that election safeguards shouldn’t be weaker.
“It should not be any easier for someone to get away with voter fraud at a polling location on voting day than it is to cheat Olive Garden through its never-ending pasta pass,” Lee said.
Heritage Foundation election expert Don Palmer told Fox that another approach would be improving citizenship verification at driver’s license agencies — the government offices responsible for many of the errors uncovered by Reuters.
MY QUICK TAKE
Forget the partisan argument for a second.
Someone walks into a government office, explicitly says, “No, I am not a U.S. citizen,” and the government computer replies, essentially, “Great. Would you like a voter registration card with that?”
You can debate the solution all day.
But “maybe the computer shouldn’t do that” feels like an unusually promising place to start.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Fox News — Mike Lee explodes on voting error as noncitizens found on rolls
- Reuters — How red and blue states mistakenly added noncitizens to voter rolls
- Texas Secretary of State — 117 cases referred for investigation of potential noncitizen voting
- National Conference of State Legislatures — Noncitizen voting and citizenship-verification laws
