Why noncitizen voting is not an issue in Minnesota

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Why don’t noncitizen immigrants vote? Because it is illegal. It is both a federal and state crime punishable by fine and imprisonment. Also, because it carries immigration consequences. It can result in denial of a green card, denial of naturalization or deportation.

Many Republicans are concerned about noncitizen voting, with claims that new voting laws in Minnesota and across the country will lead to more undocumented immigrants casting their ballots in U.S. elections. But according to my research, that’s simply not the case.

In fact, a review of every prosecution related to noncitizen voting and noncitizen voter registration in the state of Minnesota since 2015 — during which time there were more than 13.4 million votes cast — turned up a grand total of three convictions. Put simply, Minnesota does not have a noncitizen voting problem.

But won’t the new automatic voter registration law (AVR) lead to immigrants being registered to vote? No. Under AVR, Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) must have documented proof of U.S. citizenship before it forwards driver’s license and ID card applicant information to the secretary of state for voter registration.

Under the old system, driver’s license and ID card applicants had to check a box claiming they were U.S. citizens to register to vote. They could do so without providing U.S. citizenship evidence. In rare cases, this led to wrongful voter registration, including instances in which data was entered incorrectly by state employees. AVR will likely eliminate these already rare occurrences.

Won’t the new Driver’s Licenses for All law (DLFA) lead to illegal voting by undocumented immigrants? No. DLFA, which went into force in October 2023, allows all residents of Minnesota, regardless of immigration status, to get a standard driver’s license or ID if they can prove their identity and pass the tests. But their info will not lead to voter registration unless they provide proof of U.S. citizenship.

Critics intimate that because same-day voting rules allow a person to vote if they show up at the polls with proof of identity and address (like a driver’s license), holding such licenses will lead to masses of undocumented people voting on Election Day. The critics claim the simple fact of having a license might lead noncitizens to believe they have the right to vote.

I predict this will not happen. Why? For two reasons. First, because it hasn’t happened before in any measurable degree. Same-day voter registration came into effect in 1974. Before 2003, any resident in Minnesota could get a driver’s license. Gov. Tim Pawlenty changed that in 2003, requiring proof of some sort of legal immigration status to get a driver’s license.

The driving rationale behind that change was fear of terrorism. Some of the 9/11 bombers had state-issued driver’s licenses. No mention was made then of illegal voting being a problem as a reason for changing the policy.

The second reason is that finding noncitizens with lawful status who believe they can vote because they had driver’s licenses has been like finding needles in haystacks.

In one case from 2018, a noncitizen college student got caught up in election excitement on campus, registered on Election Day and voted. Even though he only showed his green card, the poll worker incorrectly told him he could vote. The issue arose when the student applied to naturalize and reported himself to election officials. The student was prosecuted and although he was allowed to argue that the fault lay with the poll worker, the jury nonetheless found the student guilty as he had signed a statement saying he was a U.S. citizen.

Extraordinarily rare cases like this illustrate that noncitizen voting has criminal consequences, that it has immigration consequences, that election officials take such offenses seriously and act upon them, and that people, be they immigrants or election officials, make mistakes.

In summary, noncitizen voting is simply a nonissue in Minnesota, and new voting laws won’t change that. To keep it a nonissue, community groups and immigration attorneys should remind noncitizens that they are not allowed to vote in local, state or federal elections in Minnesota. Election officials should continue training employees appropriately on this matter. And get-out-the-vote efforts should include reminders that noncitizens cannot vote in Minnesota.

Virgil Wiebe is a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and a founder of the Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services.