DOJ announces new set of 16 charged with illegal voting

The Justice Department announced charges Monday involving 16 people in 11 federal districts in connection with illegal voting, false claims of citizenship, and related election crimes. Fourteen are accused of voting as noncitizens, according to a department release.

“Today the Justice Department announced charges involving 16 individuals, including an illegal alien, in connection with illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration, and related election crimes across the country,” the release said.

Eleven of the 14 noncitizen-voting defendants are described as lawful permanent residents, from Pakistan, Canada, Portugal, Peru, Jamaica, Cuba, Britain, and the Philippines. An illegal immigrant from France and a Polish national who allegedly overstayed his visa before applying for permanent residence both voted in the 2024 general election. The last, a naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic, is accused of unlawfully procuring citizenship. Several allegedly voted for years, one in at least 15 elections over about 20 years, and some supposedly claimed citizenship when registering.

The final two defendants are not accused of noncitizen voting. The first is a New Mexico man indicted on one count of fraudulent voting for allegedly trying to cast his deceased wife’s absentee ballot in 2024, and the second is a North Carolina man indicted in Alabama for allegedly voting twice in the 2024 general election. 

Some Democrats have said such voting is rare. Sen. Alex Padilla of California said Sept. 30 that it is “extremely rare,” and Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia said in August, “It just doesn’t happen,” Fox News reported. 

Since President Donald Trump returned to office, the DOJ has charged 104 people with voting fraud-related offenses, 64 of them in about the past five weeks, according to figures it provided to Fox News Digital, which published them a day before this announcement. It is unclear whether that tally includes these 16. 

Polls show majority support for requiring proof of citizenship, though the margin depends on the question. In a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll of 2,200 registered voters conducted Sept. 26-28, 79% supported “requiring proof of citizenship to vote,” including 95% of Republicans, 75% of independents and others, and 66% of Democrats. An Economist/YouGov poll in March, which asked about proof of citizenship to register, found 59% in favor and 29% opposed, with Democrats at 35% in favor and 53% opposed.

The SAVE America Act, which the House passed Feb. 11, would require documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. However, the bill stalled in the Senate in late July. 

A Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll from July found 90% of registered voters said they could easily produce proof of citizenship, while 6% said it would take a lot of difficulty and 2% said they could not.