How Often Do non-US Citizens Vote in Wisconsin Elections?

Frederica Freyberg:
And this election year fact check tonight, a constitutional amendment on the November ballot in Wisconsin specifies that only a United States citizen age 18 or older may vote in an election for national, state or local office or referendum. The amendment changes current constitutional language from ‘every’ U.S. citizen to ‘only’ a U.S. citizen. Republican authors of the language say it’s needed because some states have allowed non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections. With migration being a prime campaign issue, Donald Trump is pushing fears of noncitizens voting. But as Steven Potter finds, this kind of voter fraud is vanishingly rare.

Woman:
Our state issues valid driver’s licenses to people who are noncitizens and are not eligible to vote. How do you catch that?

Steven Potter:
Convinced of fraud in the last election, people at a recent election education event in West Bend raised a worry over immigrants voting illegally in 2024.

Man:
In the last five years, the state of Wisconsin has issued driver’s licenses to over a quarter million nonlegal, illegal, whatever the right terminology is, immigrants in the state.

Steven Potter:
But that number refers to non-U.S. citizens who are legally present here as permanent residents or temporary visitors. The Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles has issued more than 258,000 driver’s licenses and 41,000 photo ID cards to non-U.S. citizens since 2019. Those Wisconsin driver’s licenses, or photo IDs, are stamped with ‘limited term’ or ‘non-domiciled’ unless the person is a permanent resident whose cards have no such stamp. A photo ID is required to vote in Wisconsin but noncitizens cannot legally use their IDs or licenses to register and vote. Despite concerns that they are in large numbers, the Wisconsin Elections Commission says that since 2019, there have been three noncitizens who have been referred for prosecution for voting illegally. Mostly misunderstanding their eligibility. The question of citizenship happens before anyone casts a ballot. When registering to vote, a person must certify under penalty of law that they’re a U.S. citizen. Noncitizens risk being arrested, jailed, and deported if they do vote illegally. As to the question, “How do you catch that?” the Wisconsin Elections Commission told us there is no mechanism available to conduct real time checks on a voter’s citizenship status. No state or federal law requires the WEC or clerks to verify a voter’s citizenship status, but they also said there’s not evidence to support the idea that noncitizens are voting in Wisconsin in significant numbers. For “Here & Now,” I’m Steven Potter.