WASHINGTON: A top Arizona election official warned Congress on Wednesday that a Republican crackdown on non-citizens voting in the Nov. 5 election is raising a “bogus issue” and could impose a stiff penalty on American citizens.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told the Republican-led House Administration Committee that 47,000 eligible voters in his state were denied the right to vote because of a 2004 initiative requiring proof of citizenship.
“We have denied eligible citizens the right to vote in far greater numbers than we would have prevented in the case of the increasingly rare non-citizen voting that is supposedly occurring across the United States of America,” said Fontes, a Democrat who was one of six states' top election officials who testified at a hearing.
During a sometimes combative session on public confidence in elections, lawmakers and witnesses traded barbs over the Biden administration’s push to register new voters through federal agencies and the wave of misinformation about the integrity of the voting system that witnesses blamed for relentless threats against election administrators.
“I've had people come to my home. They've threatened me, my staff and many of the hundreds of local election employees and officials in our state,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, told lawmakers.
“Unsubstantiated accusations and unsubstantiated rhetoric make our elections less secure because they erode public trust,” he said.
The hearing came as House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, sought to force Democrats to accept a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections nationwide.
The measure has the backing of Republican Donald Trump, who falsely claims his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread voter fraud and that the November election could be swayed by votes cast by migrants who have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
Voting by non-citizens in federal elections is a crime, and independent studies have shown that it occurs only rarely.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who acknowledged the rarity of the practice, said his office has removed nearly 600 noncitizens from the state's voter rolls, which contain about 8 million registered voters.
“But we make it rare by enforcing the law,” said LaRose, a Republican. “This problem has only been exacerbated by the lack of border security under the current administration.”
Fontes said eligible voters affected by the Arizona measure known as Proposition 200 have since been allowed ballot access despite “paranoia around a fake issue.”
But he predicted more adverse effects for eligible citizens from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that reinstated proof-of-citizenship requirements for state elections.
“These efforts will result in reducing the ability of some American citizens to vote,” Fontes said.
Just before Johnson canceled a vote Wednesday on Republican legislation requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, Republican committee chairman Bryan Steil said the measure is necessary to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote while obtaining driver's licenses.
“Since noncitizens can receive driver's licenses in all states, they inevitably also receive voter registration forms even if they cannot vote in federal elections,” Steil said.
“As a result, we've seen states take steps to remove those noncitizens from their voter rolls.”
Pro-democracy advocates and Democrats see the move as a Republican attempt to cast doubt on the November election.
“Our elections are secure,” said Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the panel. “Americans will not succumb to the torrent of misinformation and disinformation.”
At one point, every state election official (three Democrats and three Republicans) assured lawmakers that they practiced “zero tolerance” toward noncitizen voting.
