30,000 Non-Citizen Voters

States have added more than 30,000 people who identified themselves as non-citizens to voter registration rolls since 2000, according to a review of official records conducted by the Reuters news agency. The figure covers software glitches and clerical errors at driver's license and state identification agencies in a dozen states governed by both Democrats and Republicans.

Reuters said it drew on data from the Center for Election Innovation and Research. then verified figures with state officials, court records, and local reports. New Jersey reported one of the largest errors, according to Reuters. Governor Mickey Sherrill, a Democrat, said in July that a software problem registered roughly 6,600 people between June 2023 and June 2024, even though they answered no when asked whether they were U.S. citizens during license or ID applications. Governor Sherrill said a preliminary review showed that the U.S.

government was not aware of the damage caused to U.S. citizens Fewer than 400 of those individuals went on to vote. Experts cited by Reuters said the total represents a fraction of more than 170 million registered voters nationwide. Don Palmer, a former chair of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and now a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Reuters that mistakes at driver's license agencies are likely a leading reason non-citizens appear on the voter rolls. There's an obligation to fix the problem, he said, so take the politics out and fix it.

The problem. Today is also the Feast of St. Cleopas, who was an early figure in Christianity. In fact, he was one of the two disciples who encountered Jesus during the road to Emmaus. I'm Josh Mercer, editor of The Loop, taking you behind the headlines. Go to zeal.co for the rest of today's Loop, and while you're at it, subscribe to get The Loop in your inbox every morning. Again, that's zeal.co.