Statistics from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), an NGO based in Washington DC, and the US Census Bureau, show that more than a million “non-citizens” are eligible to vote in elections November presidential elections.
The numbers converge with another recent study, published by the research institute Just Factswhich estimated between 1 million and 2.7 million people who were not naturalized or who were in the country illegally who would probably vote in the election.
The term “noncitizen” used in polls refers to potential voters among legal but non-naturalized U.S. residents and illegal immigrants.
Of the seven key states for the November election, Georgia has the largest number of potential voters without citizenship or non-naturalized voters: 787,588, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
North Carolina is next on the list, with 726,079, and in Arizona, a swing state, 611,717 people have this “status,” according to numbers collected from the Census Bureau in the first quarter of 2024 and analyzed by CIS upon request from the newspaper Daily Signal.
Pennsylvania has 516,123 potential non-citizen voters of voting age, while the other states are Michigan (271,138 people), Nevada (258,736) and Wisconsin (129,600).
Steven Camarota, research director at CIS, stated that, even with a low turnout of these non-citizens at polling places, the result of the presidential elections between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be changed.
“In some states, even if only a modest portion of non-citizens voted, it could potentially flip the state, as some states will likely be decided by fewer than 30,000 votes,” he told the Daily Signal. “Of course, that doesn’t mean it actually happened or will happen.”
The study released in March by the research institute Just Facts pointed out, based on federal census data, that more than 19 million people without citizenship or non-naturalized people currently live in the USA.
Despite the high number of “non-citizens” in these key states, there are no concrete facts that can confirm a significant influence on the presidential elections. This is because there are mechanisms in each state to investigate possible voter irregularities.
According to the Heritage Foundation think tank’s election integrity rankings, Georgia, for example, with the largest number of noncitizens of voting age, has an effective system for verifying citizenship on voter registration.
In the survey, the state received the maximum four points for this category, putting it on par with Tennessee.
Arizona ranked third in that ranking, with three of four points. However, there are states that received a score of zero in this category, such as Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Current state law allows “non-citizens” to vote in 17 jurisdictions in California, Maryland, Vermont and the District of Columbia. But this right is restricted to local elections, such as for mayor, city council or school board.
In May of this year, a government watchdog group called Public Interest Legal Foundation (Public Interest Legal Foundation) reported that the Boston Elections Department removed 70 “non-citizens” from the city’s voter rolls.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose also ordered the removal of 137 unnaturalized or illegal people from the voter rolls.
According to the Daily Signalin May of last year, the Virginia Department of Elections also removed 1,481 “non-citizens” from voter rolls; 335 non-citizens voted in Virginia elections in the previous four years. Other states have taken the same steps, increasing voter citizenship verification.