EPEC NEWS

By Erin Marie Joyce, EPEC Voter News

Progressive-aligned media outlets often claim (without citation) that non-citizens who vote illegally “almost never happens.”

Virginia’s own Dept. of Elections records say otherwise. Electoral boards are taking action to investigate.

The largest county’s electoral board is the latest. It is now sending to Virginia’s Attorney General and Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney lists of noncitizens in Fairfax County who were removed from Virginia’s voter rolls by the Dept. of Elections (ELECT), making it the latest county/locality in the Commonwealth launching investigations into illegal voting by noncitizens.

Other localities, such as Arlington, have made similar moves after noncitizens removed from voting rolls voluntarily were found to have left a voting record behind.

As of May, 2023, the department removed 1,481 registrations for “non-citizen status” from the Commonwealth’s official voter rolls, according to its maintenance records.

Of those removals, nonprofit voter-participation group EPEC (Electoral Process Education Corporation) has identified voting records of over 1,000 illegal ballots cast by voters the Commonwealth has designated as “non-citizen” for the reason they were removed from official rolls.

Their voting histories go back to at least 2019.

As EPEC’s volunteer executive director Jon Lareau noted:

Using the data provided by the VA Department of Elections (ELECT), we have identified at least 2,299 unique registrations that were identified as “Declared Non-Citizen” and removed by ELECT from the voter rolls in the past year alone.

Of those 2,299 there were 438 that also had corresponding records of recent ballots cast at some point in the official Voter History record that we could observe.

They cast 1,034 ballots before they were removed, at least going back to Feb. of 2019, according to voting records archived by EPEC.

See his updated analysis here: Non-citizen registrations with previous voting history (updated Sept. 2024)

In Virginia, illegal voting is a class 6 felony. Only U.S. Citizens are allowed to cast a ballot in Virginia.

York County recently confirmed it was looking at noncitizens with a history of voting before being removed.

Arlington County’s Electoral Board recently confirmed that noncitizens who had been removed were found to have cast ballots in their past voting history. Other localities are reportedly looking into voting rolls for a history of voting by noncitizens who are ineligible to vote in Virginia.

See stories from Gazette Leader below:

Investigation launched: Have non-citizens voted in Arlington?

Va. attorney general to be alerted on possible non-citizen voting

“The General Registrar shall refer all individuals who were removed from the voter rolls pursuant to Va. Code § 24.2-427(C), after being identified by ELECT as non-citizens, to the Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Attorney General to determine if they have violated Virginia elections law.”

The policy referenced data from ELECT showing that during a two-year period, the Department of Elections canceled the registrations of 6,303 individuals in Virginia who were determined to be noncitizens.

“This includes 985 individuals who were removed in Fairfax County.”

The letter continued:

These individuals were removed from the voter rolls after being identified by the Virginia Department of Elections (ELECT) as non-citizens, in accordance with the procedures of Va. Code § 24.2-427. It appears that the individuals on this list may have violated Virginia elections law.

The issue has become a flashpoint across many Virginia localities as more noncitizens who have not attested their citizenship have been removed from the rolls. Election groups are raising questions about electoral boards’ duty to enact policies that are within Virginia statutes.

States across the country are grappling with data that show noncitizens are flowing onto voter rolls and in some cases are shown to have a voting history.

Due to the ‘Motor Voter’ program instituted under the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, many states automatically flow registrants on voter rolls from Dept. of Motor Vehicle transactions of issuing driver’s licenses.

The bulk of the noncitizens flowing onto voter rolls appears to be coming from the ‘Motor Voter’ program.

The Fairfax Electoral Board’s new policy adopted at its Sept. 16, 2024 meeting states:

Under Va. Code § 24.2-1019, General Registrars have the authority to report unlawful elections conduct to the Commonwealth’s Attorney. Making this referral does not require “evidence,” but rather a good faith conclusion that unlawful conduct may have occurred.”