Study Finds Non-Citizens Are Unknowingly Registered to Vote 

A review of New Jersey’s publicly available voter records has uncovered hundreds of non-citizens registered to vote in 11 of the state’s counties.

In addition to demonstrating the scale of just one of many elements — non-citizen registrants — of the nation’s failure to maintain election integrity, the review found that three-quarters of the non-citizens had revealed their ineligible status to a New Jersey state official, who then presented and accepted the illegal forms anyway.

The study was conducted by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF). President J. Christian Adams is PJ Media’s legal editor, and a member of Donald Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

The study covered New Jersey, but similar results should be expected in all 50 states.

The apparent cause of the situation is a consequence of requirements enacted by a federal law: former President Bill Clinton’s National Voter Registration Act of 1993, commonly known as “Motor Voter.” Under “Motor Voter,” state officials are required to offer voter registration forms and to ask citizens if they would like to register during certain interactions. Per the law’s nickname, this most often occurs during a citizen’s visit to a Department of Motor Vehicles.

However, officials in New Jersey — and likely throughout the country — have been presenting voter registration forms to non-citizens.

And in the vast majority of the cases found by the study, this was not accidental: most non-citizens revealed their ineligible status — some even presented green cards — yet were given the forms anyway.

For many of the non-citizens, there is evidence they were not even aware of the form’s purpose.

Most likely due to language issues, they accidentally registered to vote illegally — a felony. They were often not aware until the issue arose during a later naturalization process, when they needed to scramble to avoid a potential deportation.

Per the press release:

After a six-month review of New Jersey county voter registration files, the Public Interest Legal Foundation found numerous enforcement flaws for the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter) that unnecessarily expose noncitizens to future naturalization challenges and even deportation without clearly-justified reforms.

• 616 admitted and officially recorded non-citizens in 11 counties engaged on some level with the NJ voter registration system;
• Nine percent of aliens self-reporting their status also cast ballots prior;
• 76 percent of non-citizens found in the system admitted their immigration status at the outset;
• 75 percent of non-citizens were invited to register while receiving driver’s licenses or in other government transactions like community college admissions or public schools; and
• Six counties, including one “sanctuary county”, claimed to have never seen non-citizens registered or applying to vote.

“New Jersey offers eye-opening lessons,” PILF President and General Counsel J. Christian Adams said. “A limited inquiry found that hundreds of non-citizens are documented throughout voter records, typically because a bureaucrat offered them an application. Some were even asked after presenting a Green Card. That broken system is propped up by an honor code proven repeatedly to fail. Many illegally voted. Some claimed they didn’t know they were registered until an immigration agent called. All will likely face an inquiry if they decide to become Americans.”

“It’s time to have a serious discussion about modernizing our Motor Voter law and determine how we can verify citizenship in the process,” Adams added. “Anyone who disagrees exposes Americans to vote dilution and helps write one-way tickets for deportees.”