Sen. Rick Scott said 3 states removed thousands of noncitizens on voter rolls. Here’s what we know

Republican politicians from multiple states say noncitizen voting is rampant and they are doing whatever they can to stop it.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wants lawmakers to vote on a federal bill that aims to prevent noncitizen voting. Congress blocked noncitizens from voting in federal elections in 1996.

"Illegals SHOULD NOT BE VOTING in American elections," Scott wrote Aug. 28 on X, linking to a clip of an interview with Newsmax. "This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states. It’s a serious problem — and as the next Senate GOP Leader I’ll make sure we fix it."

Scott, who is running for reelection this year, wants to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the Senate Republican leader.

Despite evidence that noncitizen voting is rare, Republicans and social media influencers are making it a cornerstone of their election-year messaging.

Scott’s Senate office confirmed that he was referring to voters in Texas, Virginia and Alabama. 

We found that Scott’s number has some merit, but he misconstrued some of the details:

• Scott said the removals happened in August. Republican state officials in these states announced their actions only this month. Texas and Virginia officials said they had been removed during the past few years. 

• Scott used the word "removed." Texas and Virginia officials said they removed the voters. But Alabama moved them from active to inactive status. Alabama’s secretary of state said some of the people might have since become naturalized citizens and are therefore eligible to vote if they update their information. 

• Texas called the voters "potential noncitizens."

• It’s unclear how many of the 16,000 people voted in an election The voters flagged for citizenship questions add up to less than 1% of those states’ voter rolls.

Here is what we know about the efforts to remove noncitizen voters in three states: 

Texas: Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Aug. 26 that the state removed about 1 million ineligible people from the voter rolls since 2021. Most of them were removed because they had died or moved or didn’t respond to notices sent by election officials. 

Additionally, Abbott wrote, "of the over 6,500 potential noncitizens removed from the voter rolls, approximately 1,930 have a voter history." Those 1,930 were sent to the state attorney general for potential legal action. The word "potential" raises the question about whether they were proved to be noncitizens.

The Dallas Morning News, a PolitiFact Texas partner, reported that those 6,500 people were sent a notice that their voter registration was under examination but did not respond. The notice states that they had 30 days to provide information or documentation establishing their qualifications for voter registration.

A previous effort to clean up Texas’ voter rolls went poorly in 2019 when the state started with an error-filled list of 95,000 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls. The effort led to lawsuits and the secretary of state’s resignation. This time, Texas’ list is much smaller.

Alabama: Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen said in an Aug. 13 statement that his office identified "3,251 individuals who are registered to vote in Alabama who have been issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security." Allen did not say how many voted.

Allen instructed county boards of registrars to change the status for those voters to inactive and begin removing noncitizens from the rolls. Allen sent the list to the state’s attorney general for potential prosecution.

Allen said it’s possible that some of the people have since become naturalized citizens and are therefore eligible to vote; but they have to update their information.

Barry Stephenson, chairman of Jefferson County’s Board of Registrars, told PolitiFact his county had 557 voters on that list. 

"They are not being removed — they are moving from active status to inactive," Stephenson said. As long as they fill out the form attesting to their citizenship, they can vote.

Stephenson told PolitiFact that a couple of people who received a notice called the office and said that they had green cards and didn’t know they were registered to vote. They said they never asked to register to vote while getting a driver’s license.

Jefferson County has 47,000 people on the inactive list, so the names the state flagged for citizenship are a small slice. 

Virginia: Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in an Aug. 7 executive order that the state removed 6,303 noncitizens from voter rolls from January 2022 to July 2024. Youngkin’s order did not say whether any people cast ballots. Virginia used state Department of Motor Vehicles records and federal Department of Homeland Security data to identify noncitizens. Youngkin’s order stated that they may have "purposefully or accidentally registered to vote."

Elections experts say it is possible for an ineligible voter to accidentally register to vote at the DMV, which could be a mistake by the applicant or the clerk. And it’s possible DMV records on citizenship are outdated.

"All they know is what your citizenship status was whenever you interacted with the DMV," said Jonathan Diaz, an election law expert at the Campaign Legal Center, which promotes voting access. (The center has sent letters to Alabama and Texas officials challenging their recent actions.)  

Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, agreed with Diaz: "The fact that a voter was, at some point, not a citizen, certainly does not mean they voted during the time they were not a citizen."

Featured Fact-check

Elon Musk

stated on November 13, 2024 in an X post

Says Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., “is trying to change the outcome of the election by counting NON-CITIZEN votes.”

In 1996, Congress banned noncitizen voting in federal elections as part of a broader toughening of penalties on people in the country illegally. "Noncitizens" includes people legally and illegally in the U.S.

Safeguards already exist to prevent noncitizen voting. When people register to vote, they attest that they are citizens. Think tanks, academics, courts and journalists have analyzed claims about noncitizen voting at least since 2016 and have found only sporadic cases that wouldn’t swing federal elections. Penalties for noncitizen voting can include jail time, deportation or denial of citizenship applications. 

One of the largest examples we could find of noncitizens charged for voting stems from North Carolina. In 2020, federal prosecutors charged 19 people in North Carolina with voter fraud after they cast ballots mostly in the 2016 election. Sixteen people pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors related to voting as a noncitizen. Three cases were dismissed. 

More than 4.5 million people in North Carolina voted in the 2016 presidential election.

State election officials routinely take steps to remove ineligible people from the voter rolls in accordance with federal law. 

It could take several months or longer for authorities to determine whether any of the people the three states found on the voter rolls will face criminal charges. Additional information about these efforts could come out in potential lawsuits, meaning it could be years before some unknowns about the current removals are answered.

Scott said, "This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states." 

Scott is talking about something that did happen, but there is a lot we don’t know about the 16,000 total from available information. The outcome of investigations and potential lawsuits could take months or years. 

Based on what we know, Scott’s timeframe is off. Not all of these voters were taken off the rolls in August. State officials announced actions related to these voters in August. Texas announced it had removed 6,500 "potential noncitizens" since 2021. The word "potential" leaves some wiggle room. Virginia said it had "removed" 6,303 voters since 2022. 

The names in Alabama — 3,251 — were moved from active to inactive status, but that’s not the same as being removed. They can still vote as long as they sign a form attesting that they are U.S. citizens.

Being on the voter rolls and casting a ballot are not the same thing. We don’t know how many of the potential noncitizen voters cast ballots; Texas said 1,930 had a Texas voter history. When we add up the numbers on the lists in the three states, it amounts to less than 1% of registered voters. 

The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

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