WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. House Administration Committee argued at a Thursday hearing that there is a need for legislative action to bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Noncitizens are barred from voting in federal elections but they can vote in local elections if a local law is passed allowing them to do so. Certain municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, allow noncitizens to participate in local elections.
As the November elections approach, Republicans have taken aim at protecting voting, and have made illegal immigration policy a campaign issue due to the wide-open border. Trump, who is the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has also made the issue a central campaign theme.
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana helped unveil legislation last week to bar noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Steil said that municipalities allowing noncitizens to vote “reduces confidence in our elections.” He specifically called out Washington, D.C., for allowing noncitizens to partake in its elections.
“Washington, D.C., is setting a new standard that could soon be applied across the country,” Steil said.
“This causes a host of problems for a state to maintain (a) clean voter registration list,” Steil argued.
Researchers and studies have often disproved that noncitizens cast ballots in federal elections. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, conducted an analysis of election conduct from 2003 to 2023 and found 29 instances of noncitizens voting.
Republicans on the committee advocated for the election-related bill, H.R. 8281, that Johnson promoted on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. The bill, sponsored by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy, would require states to verify proof of citizenship to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections.
Oklahoma GOP Rep. Stephanie Bice argued that jurisdictions that allow noncitizens to vote should have a separate voter roll. She asked one of the witnesses, Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, if there should be a federal law to require states to separate voter rolls. Von Spakovsky agreed with the idea.
Bice said that the biggest issue she has with localities allowing noncitizens to vote is that “the voter rolls are not being cleaned up.”
The Roy bill would require states to remove voters from rolls who do not prove their citizenship.
Georgia GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk argued that Americans care about elections. When noncitizens are allowed to vote, “we undermine and undercut the value of each and every vote,” he said.