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U.S. Census Bureau noncitizen voting report controversy

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2026-08-22 05:41 UTC → 2026-08-22 18:08 UTC · added ~~removed~~

The U.S. Census Bureau released a preliminary analysis claiming that over 24,000 noncitizens were identified as having voted in the 2020 general election. The agency stated it reached this figure with “high confidence” by cross-referencing voter records with federal citizenship, immigration, and Social Security data. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that these individuals “literally illegally voted” and noted that the final count could increase as the analysis of the remaining 32 million voter records continues. In response to the report, President Donald Trump has called for the passage of the SAVE America Act to mandate physical proof of citizenship for voter registration. However, the report has faced significant scrutiny from election experts and former Census Bureau officials. Critics have raised concerns regarding the report’s methodology, noting that it was unsigned and lacked transparency regarding its data sources. Experts have also questioned the impartiality of the agency and noted that the identified figure represents less than 0.02% of the total votes cast, which would not have altered the election outcome. New reports indicate that the analysis may not have been conducted by career civil servants at the Census Bureau, but rather by individuals affiliated with the America First Policy Institute. Critics argue the methodology is flawed and could produce false positives by incorrectly linking names to administrative records. Concurrently, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have walked back previous claims regarding noncitizen voter registration. While DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin initially stated that 250,000 noncitizens were registered across four states, officials later clarified that such figures represented a “preliminary ceiling.” In Nevada, after initially suggesting as many as 15,903 noncitizens were on the rolls, DHS confirmed through manual review that only 185 individuals were actually noncitizens, though thousands of cases remain under review.

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