Illegal voting is not that "rare"
The evidence on illegal voting is thin -- but not because it doesn’t exist. It’s thin because it’s rarely sought.
Kim Ezra Shienbaum | March 27, 2026
Assertions about election integrity carry weight far beyond any single bill or news cycle, particularly when they rely on conclusions drawn from incomplete data. Democrats opposing the SAVE Act have settled on a declaratory talking point: illegal voting in American elections is “exceptionally rare.” Delivered with confidence, the claim goes largely unchallenged. But in a nation with well over 20 million noncitizens, such certainty warrants closer scrutiny.
The evidence on illegal voting is thin -- but not because it doesn’t exist. It’s thin because it’s rarely sought. Election officials don’t audit citizenship status systematically. States rely mainly on self-attestation, assuming honesty in the absence of meaningful verification. It’s a system built on trust, not proof.
Opponents of reform cite a 2014 paper in Election Studies by Richman et al estimating noncitizen voting at 6.4% in the 2008 Obama election. The study’s methods were challenged later for data flaws, and critics used that to scrap the entire premise. But invalidating one study doesn’t erase the weakness of our registration process. Rare enforcement doesn’t equal rare offense -- it often means we’re not looking.
In my own county in NE Pennsylvania, registering to vote requires little more than a driver’s license and a Social Security number. Neither proves citizenship. In fact, most states and localities do the same. Only a few states require proof of citizenship when registering to vote -- Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, and Washington -- through optional enhanced driver's licenses (EDLs) requiring proof of citizenship through birth certificates or passports.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/03/illegal_voting_is_not_that_rare.html
