Noncitizen Voting Cases Often Stem from Confusion, Not Conspiracy
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Noncitizen Voting Cases Often Stem from Confusion, Not Conspiracy
- Federal prosecutors have charged 129 people under a federal "voting by aliens" statute since Congress passed it in 1996, with more than two-thirds of these cases filed during the last five-and-a-half years.
- One individual, Dora Damatta-Rodriguez, a 72-year-old grandmother born in Panama, was deported in June after being convicted in 2019 for illegally voting in the 2016 election.
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Claims of widespread noncitizen voting in U.S. elections are not supported by data, with federal court records indicating a small number of prosecutions, many of which appear to be due to voter confusion or administrative errors. Since the “voting by aliens” statute was enacted in 1996, federal prosecutors have brought charges against 129 individuals, with 86 of these cases occurring in the last five and a half years. These cases have not alleged a coordinated effort to influence elections, nor have defendants been charged with being paid to vote.
One notable case involves Dora Damatta-Rodriguez, who was deported in June 2026. The Panama-born grandmother, who had lived in the U.S. for decades, was convicted in 2019 for illegally voting in the 2016 election. She stated she believed she was acting within the law, having registered to vote at a local election office using her driver’s license and interpreting their acceptance as proof of eligibility. Her driver’s license reportedly had a notation indicating she was not a citizen.
Election officials and independent research consistently show that voter fraud by noncitizens is extremely rare. For instance, a 2016 study by the Brennan Center for Justice across 42 jurisdictions found only 30 instances of suspected noncitizen voting out of 23.5 million ballots cast, a rate of 0.0001%. Despite federal and state prohibitions, and severe penalties including potential deportation, some instances of noncitizens mistakenly registering or attempting to vote occur. This can sometimes happen when individuals are automatically registered to vote when applying for a driver’s license, even though they must affirm U.S. citizenship under penalty of perjury. States regularly audit their databases to remove ineligible voters.
In October 2022, Colorado’s Secretary of State office mistakenly sent postcards to approximately 30,000 noncitizens encouraging them to register to vote, attributing the error to a database glitch. Pam Anderson, a former Colorado election official, has emphasized the importance of maintaining public confidence in elections.