Twelve days before the midterm election, few questions go more directly to the meaning of self-government than this one: who gets to vote? For most of the last century the answer has been simple in practice. Voting is a right of citizenship. Yet a handful of American localities now let noncitizens vote in some local races, several states are amending their constitutions to rule that out, and Congress remains deadlocked over proof of citizenship. Here is where things stand, what the audits actually show, and why it matters to every citizen.
What federal law says
Federal law is clear for federal races. Under 18 U.S.C. § 611, adopted in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, it is unlawful for any noncitizen to vote in an election for President, Vice President, presidential elector, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, the D.C. Delegate, or Resident Commissioner. Violators face a fine, up to one year in prison, or both. The statute includes a narrow exception for a person whose parents are all citizens, who lived in the U.S. permanently before age 16, and who reasonably believed he or she was a citizen. As Ballotpedia notes, federal law also makes noncitizens who vote unlawfully inadmissible and deportable.
What § 611 does not do is govern state and local elections. It expressly allows noncitizens to vote on a separate local question if a state constitution, statute, or local ordinance permits it, so long as that voting is conducted independently of voting for federal offices. That gap is where the current fight lives.
Where noncitizens can vote today
According to Ballotpedia, as of October 2026 the District of Columbia and certain municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont allow noncitizens to vote in some or all local elections.
Maryland. Maryland’s constitution lets municipalities set their own voter qualifications. Takoma Park became the first municipality to restore noncitizen voting in local elections in 1992. Ballotpedia now lists 16 Maryland municipalities that allow it, including Takoma Park, Hyattsville, Greenbelt, Mount Rainier, Riverdale Park, Cheverly, and the city of Frederick.
Vermont. Montpelier and Winooski gained the power to let legal residents vote in city elections in 2021, when the legislature overrode Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes. Burlington voters approved a similar charter change on March 9, 2023, and the legislature again overrode the governor’s veto to enact it.
California. San Francisco’s Proposition N, passed in 2016 with 54% support, lets noncitizen parents and guardians of children in the city’s schools vote for the Board of Education. A Superior Court judge struck it down in 2022, but on August 8, 2023, a California Court of Appeal upheld the program. Oakland voters approved a similar charter amendment in 2022, though Ballotpedia reports it had not been implemented as of October 2026.
Washington, D.C. The D.C. Council’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act opened local elections to noncitizen residents of at least 30 days. It took effect on February 23, 2023, after Congress’s review period passed without action. On June 20, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit revived a lawsuit by seven citizen voters, holding that they have standing to claim their votes are diluted. On June 10, 2025, the House voted 266 to 148 for H.R. 884 to repeal the D.C. law and bar noncitizen voting in the District, with all 210 Republicans voting yes and 56 Democrats joining them. Ballotpedia still lists D.C. as allowing noncitizen voting as of October 2026.
New York City is the counterexample. In December 2021 the City Council voted 33 to 14 to let lawful permanent residents and work-authorized noncitizens vote in municipal elections. Courts blocked the law before it was used, and on March 20, 2025, New York’s highest court struck it down 6 to 1. “Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens,” Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote.
States are writing “only citizens” into their constitutions
Many state constitutions say “every citizen” may vote without saying that noncitizens may not. Since 2018, voters in state after state have closed that gap. According to Ballotpedia, constitutional amendments explicitly limiting voting to citizens were approved in:
- 2018: North Dakota
- 2020: Alabama, Colorado, and Florida
- 2022: Louisiana and Ohio (Ohio’s Issue 2 followed the village of Yellow Springs’ 2020 vote to let noncitizens vote locally)
- 2024: Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin
- 2025: Texas (Proposition 16)
Ballotpedia counts 18 states whose constitutions now explicitly confine voting to citizens; along with those above, the list includes Arizona, Utah, and Wyoming. On November 3, voters in Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia will decide similar constitutional amendments; Arizona’s Proposition 144 would add an “only citizens” voting and registration clause along with a voter ID requirement; and Alaskans will vote on a statutory initiative stating that “Only a person who is a citizen of the United States” may vote.
The SAVE Act and proof of citizenship
Every state with voter registration requires applicants to attest that they are citizens, and Ballotpedia reports that 12 states have passed laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship in at least some cases. Utah is among the newest: KSL reports lawmakers there passed HB209 this year requiring proof of citizenship to vote in state and local elections.
At the federal level, the House passed the SAVE Act in April 2025 and then, on February 11, 2026, a broader SAVE America Act by a vote of 218 to 213, Roll Call reported. It would require proof of citizenship to register, photo identification to vote, and states to submit their voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security for citizenship checks. Its lead sponsor, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, described it as an effort to safeguard the country’s elections; Democrats argue the document requirements would burden eligible citizens, including married women whose names no longer match their birth certificates.
The bill has stalled in the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune said in July that there are not the votes to eliminate the filibuster to pass it. The Senate left for its August recess without acting, and a separate photo ID measure from Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, drew 52 of the 60 votes needed to advance. As of early October, the measure remained pending in the Senate as the country heads into the midterms.
What the audits actually show
Honest debate requires honest numbers. The verified figures from recent state reviews show noncitizen voting is rare, but not zero:
- Georgia (2024): Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s audit found 20 noncitizens among 8.2 million registered voters; nine had ever cast a ballot. All were removed and referred to law enforcement, and 156 more cases were opened for further review.
- Ohio: In August 2024, Secretary of State Frank LaRose referred 597 apparent noncitizen registrants to the attorney general, including 138 who appeared to have voted. In October 2025, he said his office had found 1,084 alleged noncitizen registrations, including 167 people who allegedly voted in a federal election going back to 2018, and began forwarding cases that county prosecutors had not taken up to the U.S. Justice Department. “We’re talking about hundreds of cases, not thousands and thousands of cases,” LaRose said.
- Michigan: A review of 2024 found 15 apparent noncitizens who voted in the general election, plus one case found earlier, together about 0.00028% of more than 5.7 million ballots cast. Thirteen were referred for possible prosecution.
- Utah (2026): An audit of more than 2 million registrations confirmed 27 noncitizens and identified 25 likely noncitizens; 13 of the confirmed noncitizens had cast ballots in certain elections.
- Iowa: According to the Center for Election Innovation & Research, Iowa’s secretary of state first flagged 2,176 possible noncitizen registrations in October 2024, then confirmed 277 noncitizens after further checks, including 35 who cast ballots counted in the 2024 general election.
Two lessons follow. First, the problem is small relative to the electorate. Second, it is real, and the cases are found because officials look. Initial flags also shrink on review: CEIR documented eligible citizens wrongly flagged in Texas, a reminder that list maintenance must be careful as well as vigorous.
Why every ineligible vote matters to citizens
An unlawful ballot does not just break a rule. It cancels a lawful one. The D.C. Circuit put the arithmetic plainly in June 2025: granting the franchise to noncitizens “will expand the D.C. electorate and reduce the voting power of each U.S. citizen voter in local elections.” The same logic applies to every ineligible ballot cast anywhere. Local races can turn on a handful of votes, which is exactly where dilution bites hardest.
That is why citizenship should remain the line. Noncitizens who live here legally contribute much to our communities, and the path to a ballot is open to them through naturalization. But a republic belongs to its citizens, who bear its full obligations and share its common fate. Keeping the vote for citizens honors that bond, and so does making sure no eligible citizen is turned away.
The practical agenda is not complicated: verify citizenship at registration, keep rolls clean with careful cross-checks, prosecute the cases that are found, and give citizens a fair chance to fix errors. Before you vote on November 3, check whether your state has a citizenship amendment on the ballot, and ask your candidates where they stand.
Sources
- Cornell Legal Information Institute: 18 U.S. Code § 611 – Voting by aliens
- Ballotpedia: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States (accessed Oct. 22, 2026)
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit: Hall v. District of Columbia Board of Elections, No. 24-7050 (June 20, 2025)
- Office of the Clerk, U.S. House: Roll Call 163, H.R. 884 (June 10, 2025)
- Roll Call: House passes revamped citizenship and voter ID bill (Feb. 11, 2026)
- Election Law Blog, quoting ABC News: Thune says no to filibuster changes (July 27, 2026)
- Daily Caller News Foundation via IJR: Senate Leaves Town Without Passing SAVE America Act
- India Today: US voter registration row simmers as SAVE Act stalls before midterms (Oct. 3, 2026)
- CNN: Georgia’s Republican secretary of state finds just 20 noncitizens registered to vote out of 8.2 million (Oct. 23, 2024)
- Ohio Secretary of State: LaRose refers evidence of non-citizen voter registrations to Ohio Attorney General (Aug. 21, 2024)
- Statehouse News Bureau: Ohio’s secretary of state forwards alleged voter fraud cases to DOJ (Oct. 28, 2025)
- Michigan Department of State: Review confirms instances of noncitizen voting are extremely rare (Apr. 3, 2025)
- KSL: New audit finds ‘small handful’ of noncitizens on Utah voter rolls (May 27, 2026)
- Center for Election Innovation & Research: Review of Claims of Noncitizen Registrants and Voters (Feb. 2026)
