Legal disputes over Republican voter purges are being used to fuel election-denier conspiracy stories about noncitizens voting, a new report found Tuesday.
Voting experts say voting by non-Americans is virtually nonexistent, but eight states are looking at whether to join 12 others to reaffirm that only citizens may vote. Republican officials are claiming they've found thousands of noncitizens on voter rolls and have filed legal challenges accusing the Biden administration of preventing them from verifying that only U.S. citizens are casting ballots, reported CNN.
“None of the issues that any of these states are raising are new because they are not actually trying to do anything to improve the accuracy of their voting rolls,” said Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy and partnerships at the Campaign Legal Center.
"[These challenges are] about setting up a scapegoat to point at if their candidates lose, and it’s about drumming up fear among the American people about whether or not our elections are secure.”
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Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose recently filed a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of failing to provide assistance in vetting voters, similar to complaints filed by Florida and Texas, while the American Civil Liberties Union has challenged his requirement that suspected noncitizens provide proof of citizenship — despite a 2006 federal court ruling striking that down as unconstitutional.
Donald Trump frequently — and falsely — accuses the Biden administration of trying to allow noncitizens to vote, and Fox News has misleadingly echoed those claims. Voting experts say that's intended to sow mistrust and fuel post-election challenges.
“Everyone knows that the National Voter Registration Act says you don’t do list maintenance in the last 90 days because the risk is too great, you’re going to screw up,” said Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Levitt. “The fact that states were asking to do this, knowing that they couldn’t, shows that they’re not serious about cleaning up the rolls. It’s about producing a press release.”
