Noncitizen voting is rare. Why is Washington so focused on it?

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/17/save-act-election-security-noncitizen-voting-00782470

A flood of Republican-backed efforts to tighten voter ID laws is serving as a distraction from more serious threats to the American voting system, according to top election security experts.

“[Washington] is chasing false narratives and leaving open all the vulnerabilities that are only worse now,” said Michael McNulty, policy director at Issue One, a bipartisan organization that tracks election issues.

While Hill Republicans and members of the Trump administration have framed these bills as much-needed reform for pressing election security issues, data collected by state election offices suggests that the threat being targeted is largely overblown.

Noncitizen voting in the U.S. is extremely rare, and state election offices conduct regular assessments of their voter rolls to curb risks of voter fraud. A recent report from the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research found that many claims of noncitizen voting stem from “misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data.”

The report highlighted a 2025 voter roll audit by Michigan’s Department of State, which found that of the 7.2 million active registered voters on the state’s rolls, there were only 16 instances of suspected noncitizens who cast a ballot in the 2024 presidential election. Other states, including Louisiana and Utah, recently conducted audits of their voter rolls and found few incidents of noncitizen voting or voter registration.