FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 10, 2025
By Sen. Mike Lee & Hon. Ken Cuccinelli | The Washington Times
Last fall, a Chinese citizen enrolled at the University of Michigan was charged with illegally voting in an American election. Last week, it was reported that he fled the country.
The violence and crime accompanying America’s illegal immigration crisis, including cartels at our border and the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, are well known. Still, our representative government faces another threat: the votes of Americans being “canceled out” by the votes of noncitizens.
Queue the commonsense Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which is under consideration in Congress and would ensure that only U.S. citizens can vote in U.S. elections.
Passed with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, the SAVE Act would require states to obtain simple documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and to verify identities when people register to vote in federal elections at a DMV or voter registration agency or by mail.
In addition to more than 11 million foreign nationals lawfully present in the U.S. as of 2023, at least 10 million illegal immigrants crossed our border in the past four years to join the approximately 10 million already here. In fact, more illegal immigrants are in the U.S. than the total registered voting population of any U.S. state, with the exception of California.
Evidence that some are registering and voting in our elections is irrefutable.
When the Department of Government Efficiency found 1.3 million noncitizens on Medicaid, these people were checked against the voter rolls of just a few states. DOGE discovered thousands registered and voting, and that’s just from Medicaid. You may recall President Biden’s executive order effectively turning federal agencies into registration centers for partisan voter turnout.
In 2018, the Public Interest Legal Foundation sued the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to obtain records regarding an acknowledgment that a “glitch” in the Transportation Department’s system had resulted in the illegal registration of more than 100,000 noncitizens. The case is still not resolved because Pennsylvania officials have stymied efforts to gain access to the data and records for more than half a decade.
Last year, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that his administration had removed more than 6,300 noncitizen registrants from the state’s rolls. A citizen-led voter integrity organization reviewed that list and determined that, of the noncitizens removed by Mr. Youngkin, almost 1,000 ballots had been illegally cast since 2019.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen ordered more than 3,200 noncitizens removed from his state’s voter rolls, and 500 were removed in Ohio. As President Trump would say, “many such cases!”
Opponents of the SAVE Act brazenly pretend it will prevent married women from voting, an argument premised on their belief that women who have already figured out how to change their name are not smart enough to provide documentation of that name change.
Even Rep. Jared Golden, Maine Democrat who voted for the SAVE Act, said, “There are a lot of misleading claims out there about the SAVE Act. … I voted for the SAVE Act for the simple reason that American elections are for Americans. Requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote is common sense.”
Indeed, this is not a controversial position to American voters. In November, eight states successfully considered referendums to cement citizen-only voting in their state constitutions. Voters approved each one by a ratio of nearly 3-to-1.
However, most other states lack explicit constitutional language that adequately excludes noncitizens from registering to vote in elections at every level. This loophole allows noncitizens to land on the voter rolls.
Yes, it’s already against the law for noncitizens to vote, but every state issues driver’s licenses to noncitizens. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Driver’s licenses, state IDs and Social Security numbers can prove identity but not citizenship. Still, noncitizens can legally obtain them. These forms of ID are generally acceptable for registering to vote, with no proof of citizenship required. Most state registration forms merely ask applicants to check a box promising they are citizens: a literal honor system.
This is the madness the SAVE Act was crafted to fix. America should have fair and honest elections that can be trusted by all voters, regardless of party affiliation. Still, noncitizens are able to vote in U.S. elections thanks to a broken system, compounded by the invasion of our southern border allowed by Mr. Biden and his handlers.
The SAVE Act helps guarantee that illegal votes by noncitizens don’t cancel out legitimate votes cast by American citizens. The Senate should advance this critical legislation and give Americans the confidence in our elections they deserve.
Mike Lee is a U.S. senator from Utah and an author of the SAVE Act.
Ken Cuccinelli is a former Virginia attorney general and acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He now leads the Election Transparency Initiative.
The Election Transparency Initiative, a partnership between the American Principles Project (APP) and Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, was organized to combat federal H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 legislation and advocate for state-based election reforms that voters can trust.
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