Is Non-Citizen Voting a Problem?

President Trump has repeatedly stated that one of the most important objectives of the SAVE Act is to prevent non-citizens from voting.

Federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections. A small number of localities allow non-citizen voting in very prescribed races.

Numerous informed sources have stated that the President’s position is a solution in search of a problem.

From Time Magazine:

Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry announced in September that an ongoing investigation had found 390 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls. That number represents roughly 0.01 percent of the 2.9 million registered voters in Louisiana. Of the 390 non-citizen registrants identified by the investigation, Landry said 79 had voted in at least one election.

Utah’s election office, meanwhile, said last month that it had not discovered any cases of non-citizens casting ballots in the state after months of investigating.

The National Council of State Legislatures reports the following on its website:

In 2024, Georgia conducted a citizenship audit of its voter rolls and found 20 noncitizens, nine of whom had voted at some point. Ohio conducted a citizenship verification audit and forwarded to the attorney general the records of 138 voters lacking evidence of citizenship.

In 2022, Texas conducted a procedural audit of Harris County’s elections, which included a review of list maintenance activities. Using data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the audit found that there were potentially 269 noncitizens on the voter rolls statewide, with 47 of them in the county. The audit also confirmed that Harris County cancelled the noncitizen matches before the election and that no one on the list cast a ballot.

The Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for Election Innovation and Research (CEIR), the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and numerous other organizations who have examined the issue have all concluded that no real problem exists.