Despite what some half-wit local Secretary of State or Attorney General or Congressperson or Senator might say, non-citizens DO vote in federal elections in the U.S.
A legal permanent resident / Green Card holder can apply for U.S. citizenship, if they wish to, after holding a Green Card for 5 years, or 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen. To do so they must submit a Form N-400, “Application for Naturalization.” (It currently costs $710 to file this.)
On January 31 2022, I filed a freedom of information request (FOIA) with the Department of Homeland Security to ask how many applicants had recently submitted N-400 forms and how many had positively answered the following two questions:
Part 12, Question 2: "Have you EVER registered to vote in any Federal, state, or local election in the United States?”
Part 12, Question 3: "Have you EVER voted in any Federal, state, or local election in the United States?"
(At the time I submitted my FOIA, non-citizen voting was allowed in only a handful of local elections around the nation.)
On April 12, 2024 I finally received a response to my FOIA. I was informed that between 2016 and 2020 there were 4,640,671 N-400 applications processed nationwide and 7,205 (0.16%) had answered “yes” to question 2, and 3,628 answered “yes” to question 3 (0.08%).
Given that a Green Card holder has EVERYTHING TO LOSE by answering either question truthfully, it is remarkable that anyone answered either question positively. It does nevertheless speak to the integrity and quality of some of the immigrants who go through the arduous process of applying to enter the United States through legal channels.
If LEGAL immigrants admit to voting in elections, ILLEGAL immigrants are voting too!
A curious postscript to my FOIA was the fact that a new version of the N-400 form was released and dated on the same day that President Trump was inaugurated in 2025. This new form combined both questions I asked about into a Part 9 question: “Have you EVER registered to vote or voted in any Federal, state, or local election in the United States? ...”
A last gasp by Biden administration Democrats to make sure that a busy body like me could NEVER in the future find out how many Green Card holders were illegally voting in federal elections?
If you are a Democrat, it is important to cover your tracks … Or at least try to.