EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The El Paso County elections administrator cleared the misconception that many people have during election time. Noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections.
Lisa Wise, the elections administrator, said undocumented immigrants can be penalized for casting their ballots in races for the president, vice president, Senate and House of Representatives.
“Every state has their own penalty. Texas law would be a second-degree felony if it’s completed, if they did actually cast a ballot. If it’s an attempt, it’s what’s called a state jail felony,” said Wise.
On top of jail time, noncitizens could also be fined and even deported.
With these high-stake penalties, it is uncommon for noncitizens to vote in federal elections despite rhetoric spread.
Wise said numerous studies have been done by organizations that fall on both sides of the political spectrum and their findings show very few instances on noncitizens voting.
“Anything that we’ve seen in the last 20 years, 10 years, five years, there has been no proof of any widespread noncitizen voting. So, it’s in the very small digits, that the sample size is millions, and the number is in the tens or dozens. So, I do believe that’s a pretty decent success rate and not something that we’ve seen here or frankly, across the country,” Wise said.
The state of Texas has a rigorous voter verification process to ensure that voter unique identifiers are given to qualified voters. If the system identifies someone who is registering as a noncitizen, Wise says the state follows a process to check citizenship.
“We send out a letter and it’s designed by the state, and it basically says we have reason to believe that you are a noncitizen, and you have 30 days to basically prove that you are,” Wise said.
People can prove citizenship by providing identification documents like a birth certificate, but if there is no response their voter registration is cancelled.
Wise said the registration process is more complex than people think.
“They can’t just check something and say, yes, I am a citizen. You have to provide documentation,” Wise said.
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