States deal with 'threat' of non-citizen voting in different ways

WASHINGTON (TNND) — For months, concerns have been raised about non-citizens voting in the 2024 Election.

During a May 8 news conferenceon the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., stated, "We all know intuitively that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections."

The SAVE Act is legislation that would require proof of American citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

But so far there is little evidence that Johnson's statement is true.

Federal law already prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections, with no states allowing it in statewide elections. However, California, Maryland, Vermont and Washington D.C. do allow non-citizens to vote in some local elections.

Other states have been cracking down.

Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an Executive Order on Aug. 7, requiring voters to be removed from the rolls if they previously checked a box at the DMV that said they were not U.S. citizens.

In an interview with The National News Desk Friday, Youngkin said, "Someone who has walked into a DMV, says they’re a non-citizen ends up on the voter rolls with by accident or by purpose is sent this notice that they’re coming off the voter rolls and if they don’t confirm they’re a citizen then they come off."

That effort though,just blocked in federal court for violating The National Voter Registration Act, which requires states to complete, no later than 90 days prior to the election, a systematic removal of names of ineligible voters.

"A state shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters."

It's known as the "quiet period" provision.

Now, 1,600 voters taken off the rolls will be required to be put back on.

During a news conference on Friday,Brent Ferguson, senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, said, "We’ve already started to find citizens who were natural born and naturalized on this list so what this program was doing, was taking eligible citizens off the rolls."

A just-completed Georgia audit foundthat out of eight million voters, just 20 non-citizens were registered to vote.

While there is no widespread evidence non-citizens have voted it’s an issue also being considered by voters in eight states including the battleground states of North Carolina and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Youngkin has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in his state's case.