4mo ago

Illegal voting by noncitizens is rare, yet Republicans are making it a major issue this election

apnews.com Data indicates voting by noncitizens is rare. Republicans are pressing measures to make sure of it

Federal law already allows only U.S. citizens to vote in elections for president and Congress. Yet Republicans are raising concerns about the potential for noncitizens voting in this year's elections.

You have a better chance of snapping a photo of Bigfoot than you have of a voter fraud incident in your jurisdiction, but it infuriates me that the myth of widespread voter fraud persists.

Politics @beehaw.org

Illegal voting by noncitizens is rare, yet Republicans are making it a major issue this election

apnews.com /article/noncitizens-voting-republicans-election-2024-immigration-09b86e6768f755fd875f3c51b0e8ea70

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51 comments

They have nothing real to run on. They never do. But idiots will work themselves into a lather over shit that doesn't happen like this.
All they have is engineered outrage and grievance politics. And the chuds will eat it up.
- And the chuds will eat it up.
  Really feel sorry for the orange cult folks. They are incredibly ignorant and gullible to the point of being their own worst enemy. Demons will gather up their souls one day because nothing else tolerates such filth.
- They really create issues out of thin air.
- They have nothing real to run on.
  
  Pictured is Kamala Harris’s Presidential Campaign page, main menu, as viewed on mobile. The second screenshot shows the menu from the bottom of the website.
  Of note is the fact that there is no reference whatsoever so Harris’s policy positions.
  She doesn’t give interviews.
  She is doing what you’re accusing Republicans of doing, which is having nothing real to run on. She is literally running on nothing.
  Also, she was not elected as the candidate in a primary.
  But oh yes, let’s all remember that “Democracy’s on the ballot here”, as we back our wild card candidate who skipped the primaries, doesn’t do interviews, and doesn’t have a platform.
  
  Perhaps watch one of their numerous huge rallies or speeches where they outline exactly what they are running on. Two screenshots you took of a website are meaningless.
  
  You're not wrong, but in what world is that even comparable (or relevant in conparison) to trying to overturn an election?
  No matter what you think of Harris' policies, shes the only actual candidate on the ballot.

They’re beating this drum now so they can claim the election was stolen by “illegals” voting in swing districts. They just need to (at a minimum) challenge a couple thousand votes in 2-3 states.
- You're right. They're trying to gin up the specter of voter fraud in case they lose. No one voting Republican needs proof anyway.
- Don't forget the voter suppression before the election. They'll have long list of blue voters that must be purged because maybe one of them is illegally voting.
  
  They can purge you in certain states if you skipped an election. Show up to vote and surprise! You're not registered.

2016 election Republicans made Muslims the problem.
2018 election Republicans made the Black people the problem.
2020 election Republicans made the Chinese the problem.
2022 election Republicans made Trans people the problem.
2024 election Republicans make Mexicans and Central Americans the problem.
Seeing a trend here. Can't put my finger on it.
https://www.republicanleader.senate.gov/senate-resources/republican-senators
- Oh all of the above have been "the problem" as long as I've been alive, at the same time.
  It's almost like it isn't everyone else that's the problem
  
  You are correct. However, every cycle they single out one group and hit all the same fear tactics. It's not new or innovative but it has the same deadly results.
  Trump losing won't change the party viewpoint. It will just make them more secretive. Closet racists again.
  
  The "first they came for..." quote is probably more damaging than people realize. They don't systematically make more different people the problem. Everyone is fair game at all times whenever it's opportune.

And when voter fraud is found... It's Republicans.
"If I feel like I could justify doing it then that means they can do the same so I better do it to compensate for them doing it!" But the truth is, the other side isn't doing it...

In their mind they literally can't accept that more people disagree with them then not, and this is the only way they can accept it
- You're right about that.
- You can hear the silent majority screaming form the rooftops
- Sadly this aged like milk

There's an amendment on the ballot here in Missouri to ban non-citizens from voting this year. Also to ban ever adopting ranked choice voting, but it's really about that non-citizen thing. Totally not ballot candy to do something undemocratic.
If you're in Missouri, vote no on amendment 7 please.
- Isn’t it already illegal to vote as a non-citizen?
  
  Yeah that's the point. They know it's already illegal, they put it on the ballot to drive turnout. Conservative voters are convinced that non citizens are voting in droves.
- I intend to.

Its rare enough to be trivial, and when it happens, it's usually someone who doesn't realize that they are not eligible. For example, if someone came to the country at a young age and mistakenly thought that they could vote.
But as it turn out, policies that require people to verify their citizenship are also very good at disenfranchising eligible voters who are poor, young, immigrants, disabled, or non-native English speakers. Neat, huh?
Edit: I forgot LGBT folks who may have changed their name or lack access to their childhood documents.
- iirc changing your gender in Florida is still illegal even if you don't vote

In San Francisco, a resolution was passed allowing undocumented residents who had children to vote legally in school board elections and no one voted. My guess is that even if officially invited to vote, an undocumented person isn’t going to just give the government their name and address. So yeah, Republicans are just conjuring up yet another conspiracy theory to rattle what they themselves call “low information voters”, aka their base.
- Agreed. I can't see undocumented people risking their lives trying to vote.

Illegal voting by noncitizens is far ~~less~~ more rare than illegal voting by conservatives.
Edit: Oops, I got my modifier wrong because I switched up the order halfway through the comment.
- No, it's far less common, not less rare.
  
  Gah, my coffee to blood ratio is still too low.
- I was coming here to ask this very thing. Weren't most instances of fraud perpetrated by the republican chodes anyway? It's pretty simple: they know they can't win fairly, so everything has to be a convoluted shit-show with absolutely no substance whatsoever.
  
  There was a Republican chode here in Wisconsin who voted twice to prove that people could vote twice. (The clerks caught his double vote, and he got prosecuted.)

Anything to avoid having actual policies and ideas.
- When they write down their stances, it’s a scandal. See how unpopular (and terrifying) Project 2025 is.

You want to claim fraud to get the RIGHT people to vote
- Also to get the ~~white~~ right people to intimidate the ~~brown~~ wrong people into staying home, under the guise of "poll watchers."

There's a this American Life episode about this, starts off being about the birthday paradox.... Gives a good run down of how voter fraud has been disproven as an issue:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/630/things-i-mean-to-know
- Years ago the ACLU actually had Kris Kobach's records on voter fraud cases from when he was KS Attorney General. I pored over them, and over fifteen years of reports he prosecuted something like ten cases affecting even fewer votes.
  And that's a guy who built his whole career around voter fraud. Even he couldn't produce evidence that it actually existed.
  Those records may still be on the ACLU's website if any of you want to take a look.

It’s the only thing they’ve got, to explain conservative losses. Distracts from the perpetual popular vote losses.

because the goal is to end voting for citizens

From what I remember, more republicans committed voter fraud last election over anyone else to ensure their "unbeatable god" wins
- I'd say it's ironic, but given their history, it's really not.
  It wasn't that long ago that Donald Trump ordered mail drops removed, and Louis DeJoy ordered post offices shut down, and sorting machines removed from USPS distribution centers.
  That was objectively the biggest voter fraud ever committed.

Of course they are. It's a narrative. Now they have a reason why they lost.

Its just part of their desperate attempts to hold onto power. Theyre running scared

They always try to (need to?) turn things into a binary. Yes or no. It's a question of how many, but they find one and act like it's everywhere.
Same thing with the one woman killed by an illegal immigrant. They find the case study and act like it's everywhere.

Start looking for illegals bused in by the GOP to vote illegally.

How is it known that it’s rare?
- I gave one example above, but the short answer is, people have tried to find it and haven't succeeded.
  Like Bigfoot.
  
  Voter roles are registration are effective. I vote in almost every election, and they can tell my ballot status when I go in. My vote is tied to my address and other factors, so it seems like it would be clear if I wasn't a legal citizen.
  I also have to show a government ID when I vote, but it doesn't seem like that's made a big difference in the security of the elections I participate in.

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