Noncitizens are not permitted to vote in state and federal elections. It’s a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and it’s a crime under every state’s laws. In fact, under federal law, a noncitizen could face up to five years in prison simply for registering to vote. So it should come as no surprise that every legitimate study ever done on the question shows that voting by noncitizens in state and federal elections is vanishingly rare.
Despite this, certain politicians frequently claim that it is happening on a significant scale, attempting to turn immigrants into a scapegoat as a way to drum up support and undermine trust in the election system. Then if they lose, they can call for the election to be overturned.
This page compiles studies that rebut the myth of noncitizen voting, and it shows the harm to democracy caused when politicians spread this falsehood and use it to justify restrictive voting policies and election subversion.
