Poll Shows Noncitizens Can Shape Elections
A poll by John McLaughlin confirms again we may have a significant problem with noncitizens participating illegally in our elections. Based on a sample survey of 800 Hispanics in 2013, McLaughlin found that of foreign-born respondents who were registered voters, 13 percent admitted they were not United States citizens.
In our 2012 book on voter fraud, John Fund and I noted numerous cases of noncitizen registration and voting all over the country. Only a month ago, the Board of Immigration Appeals of the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Justice Department held that a Peruvian citizen who illegally registered and voted in the 2006 congressional election could be deported for violating federal law. The only reason she was caught is because she applied for naturalization in 2007 and admitted in the INS interview that she had voted in an American election.
In 2014, a study released by three professors at Old Dominion University and George Mason University, based on survey data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, estimated 6.4 percent of noncitizens voted illegally in the 2008 presidential election and 2.2 percent voted in the 2010 midterm congressional elections.
Since 80 percent of noncitizens vote Democratic, according to the study, noncitizen participation could have “been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes [in North Carolina in 2008], and Congressional elections” such as the 2008 race in Minnesota in which Al Franken was elected to the U.S. Senate, giving “Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote” to pass Obamacare. The Old Dominion/George Mason study was sharply attacked by progressive critics, but the mounting evidence makes clear this is a real problem.
But buried in the back of the survey on page 68 is a “Voter Profile” that reveals that 13 percent of noncitizen respondents admitted they were registered to vote (a violation of state and federal law), which matches closely the Old Dominion/George Mason study finding that 14.8 percent of noncitizens admitted they were registered to vote in 2008 and 15.6 percent of noncitizens admitted they were registered in 2010.
When these numbers were adjusted to take into account various factors, such as noncitizens “who said they were not [registered but] were actually registered,” the Old Dominion/George Mason study’s authors concluded that the true percentage was probably closer to 25 percent.
There is no doubt the registration rate of noncitizens varies depending on the jurisdiction, and the percentage of those voting is likely smaller. But whether the registration rate is 13 percent as McLaughlin found or 25 percent as the Old Dominion/George Mason study estimated, there seems little doubt that there are enough noncitizens registering and voting to potentially make the difference in close elections.
COMMENTARY BY
Hans von Spakovsky is an authority on a wide range of issues—including civil rights, civil justice, the First Amendment, immigration, the rule of law and government reform—as a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and manager of the think tank’s Election Law Reform Initiative. Reproduced with permission from The Daily Signal, a Heritage Foundation publication.
PUT A STOP TO IT. WHATEVER IT TAKES. DEPORATION
WHATEVER. AMERICAN VOTES ARE SACRED. WE DON’T NEED THEM COUNTED IN SPAIN OR GEORGE SOROS HOUSE. SPIRIT OF AMERICA PARTY ON TUNE IN
We should declare war on Mexico.
Registered or not, if they vote dumbocrap, they’re allowed to vote. Makes me want to throw up.
If we give an inch, they will take a foot, but when I say to give an inch, I am not talking of We The People, I am talking of our traitorous government
Dear Americans,
Once again, I am not surprised at the covert attempts by mostly the Democrat Party to dilute our nation’s voting base into an overwhelming Democrat base. To an opportunistic politician all that matters is that he or she continue to hold office, regardless of whether it is by legal or illegal means.
Our nation’s heritage, its history, or its heralded stature as “a nation of laws” is meaningless to the Democrat Party (and to their handful of enablers in the Republican Party). All that matters to these political ghouls is that “they” maintain power forever, regardless of the cost to our society.
As these charlatans of honor and integrity continue to degrade the meaning of being a good American, our society will resign itself to the fact that our once revered political leadership is essentially lawless. At that point lawlessness will become the conduct du jour.
Jim Gilchrist, The Minuteman Project
Except, then we’d end up even more of their citizens. No I say boycott Mexico and put their tourism in a tailspin.
It just shows you how rotten and corrupt our government is. And this has been going on for years, especially in California.
Jim is suggesting that the Border can only be brought under control by an invasion by the U.S. Army.
I’m not sure it’s a “handful of enablers in the Republican Party”, Jim. Most of the time, the corporate lapdog RINOs outvote the good conservatives, like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Louie Gohmert, Jeff Sessions, and others who aren’t coming to my mind now. I donated $100. each to Senators Ron Johnson and Mark Kirk in 2010 and they are BIG disappointments.
Isn’t this called a conspiracy? We need to bring this to the attention of our brand new AG and let her show us how she deals with corruption.
We need to eliminate our domestic enemy first and Mexico will no longer be a problem.