The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday on a bill banning non-citizens from voting in federal elections, a practice that is
already illegal, fueled by Donald Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud.
With less than four months before Trump’s Nov. 5 election against Democratic President Joe Biden, House Republican leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, are supporting the measure. They argue that individuals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally could cast ballots in this year’s presidential and congressional elections.
On Tuesday, Johnson claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are promoting non-citizen voting.
"Many of the Democrats want all of these illegals to participate in our federal elections. They want them to vote," Johnson stated at a news conference.
The legislation is expected to face significant opposition in the Democratic-majority Senate. Democrats have labeled the bill a "stunt" designed to create "confusion and distrust" and have cautioned that it amounts to voter suppression.
"For all the hysterical rhetoric ... Republicans have one real purpose here: to continue to erode the confidence of Americans in our election system," said Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which oversees election policy.
Democratic Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez warned that the bill, if passed, would make voting more difficult for U.S. citizens, including military members, Native Americans, minorities, and rural residents.
"It is shameful and unpatriotic when Republicans take aim at voter participation," the New Mexico Democrat commented.
Speaker Johnson, who has relied on Trump's support to maintain his leadership position against challenges from Republican hardliner Marjorie Taylor Greene, announced plans for the legislation during an April joint press conference with the former president in Florida.
Trump, who continues to assert false claims that the 2020 election was stolen through massive voter fraud, supports the bill.
Republicans claim the legislation would protect voting by requiring states to collect proof of U.S. citizenship before registering voters and to purge their voter rolls of non-citizens.
Johnson and other Republicans have cited data indicating that non-citizens are registered to vote in some states and have pointed to municipalities such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Montpelier, Vermont, where resident aliens are allowed to vote in local elections.
Additionally, Republicans reference a widely discredited 2014 study that purportedly showed a level of non-citizen voting capable of influencing congressional and presidential elections. Trump used this study to support his claim that Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election due to illegal ballots cast by non-citizens.
"This is a scare tactic," said Wendy Weiser, who directs the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. "Non-citizens cannot vote in U.S. elections. There are multiple layers of protections in place, including it being a crime under federal and state law."
A Brennan Center study reviewed 42 jurisdictions, covering 23.5 million votes in the 2016 presidential election, and found only 30 incidents of possible non-citizen voting, or 0.0001% of votes cast. Photo by Office of the Speaker of the House, Wikimedia commons.