With Election Day just 11 weeks away, many political observers remain concerned about election integrity and doubt that enough has been done to prevent the chaos that marred the 2020 election. A recent audit by the Virginia Department of Elections found that more than 6,300 noncitizens were registered, either purposely or by accident. Those ineligible noncitizens have now been scrubbed from the rolls.
And because Virginia issues driver's licenses to noncitizens, Governor Youngkin is directing the Department of Motor Vehicles to track daily transactions and notify county prosecutors when noncitizens attempt to register to vote.
Meanwhile, Ohio's recent 2024 election audit uncovered nearly 500 noncitizens registered to vote. The state promptly removed them from the rolls.
Ira Mehlman is media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
"There are a lot of concerns that the American public has about the integrity of our electoral process. We don't know how many of the people who have been purged from the voter rolls in Virginia and Ohio actually cast any votes," he tells AFN. "But nevertheless, they should not be on the rolls – and we should have some orderly process for making sure that people who registered to vote are legitimately eligible to vote in this country."
Mehlman points out that last month the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act (H.R. 8281) by a bipartisan vote of 221-198.
"It's to ensure that noncitizens cannot register to vote," Mehlman explains. "It passed the House, including with some support from Democrats. Sen. Ted Cruz is now sponsoring a companion bill in the Senate that is supposed to be introduced once they get back from recess."
The Senate is to reconvene September 9. FAIR is urging President Joe Biden to sign the SAVE Act "immediately" if the Senate approves it and forwards it to the Oval Office.
