How the Help America Vote Act Actually Helps Illegals and Other Ineligible People to Vote in American Elections
The left can literally twist and contort anything into a weapon to undermine this Country. The Help America Vote Act is another illustration of this.
Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in the aftermath of the American Presidential Election debacle in 2000, when George W. Bush won the State of Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes, amid hanging chads and recounts. The law contains provisions dealing with everything from election assistance, to funding the purchase of new election systems by the States, to minimum standards for the administration of elections and more. The preamble to HAVA states the purpose of the new law to be:
While these lofty purposes sound good, as is so often the case with federal law, the “devil is in the details.” Unfortunately, one consequence of HAVA is to facilitate voting by illegals and other people who are ineligible to vote. Let’s take a closer look.
Are Illegal Aliens Eligible to Register to Vote?
The answer to this question is no, illegal aliens are NOT eligible to register to vote or to vote in federal elections. 18 U.S.C. §611 specifically makes voting by “aliens” a crime. This statute provides, in part:
“Alien,” for purposes of the criminal statute cited above, is defined in yet another federal statute, 8 U.S.C. §1101 as follows:
(The prohibition on illegals voting passed in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.)
Therefore, for purposes of federal elections, the law clearly establishes that people in this Country illegally are not eligible to register to vote or vote in the United States.
How are Illegals Registering to Vote?
If federal law makes it illegal for illegal aliens to vote, then how are they getting registered to vote in the first place? The answer is federal law limits what State elections officials can do to prevent illegal aliens, and other ineligible people, from registering to vote or voting. In an earlier article, I outlined how the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (commonly known as the “Motor Voter Law”) is used to create opportunities for illegals to register to vote and to stop States from screening out illegals. In this article, I will outline how the Help America Vote Act works alongside the National Voter Registration Act to, once again, facilitate illegal alien voter registration and illegal alien voting.
The most relevant statutory provisions in HAVA are found in 52 U.S.C. §21083. This statute contains several important provisions imposing rules on voter registration and voting, including:
Requiring States to maintain electronic voter registration lists
Requiring voter registration applications to include a current driver’s license number or the last 4 digits of the applicant’s social security number, UNLESS the person does not have a DL or SSN, in which case the State must assign the applicant a unique number which will identify the person for “voter registration purposes”
Allowing those who vote in person to present a “current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter,” if they do not have a valid photo ID
Allowing those who vote by mail to submit a copy of a “current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter” if they do not have a valid photo ID
Allowing people to cast provisional ballots if they attempt to vote by mail or in person and do not have a valid photo ID and cannot produce a copy of a utility bill, government check or other government document with their name and address
Obviously, allowing people to register to vote without valid photo ID does not inspire confidence in the accuracy of voter rolls. How then does HAVA protect against illegals registering to vote? Just like the National Voter Registration Act, HAVA requires “Mail-in Voter Registration Forms” to include the following:
The voter registration by mail form asks them if they are citizens and tells them, if not, don’t complete the form. That is all this Federal law does to make sure the millions of people in this Country illegally do not register to vote or vote.
Valid ID is Not Required, But Even ID Would Not Help Everywhere Anyway
Readers will note, the provisions cited above do not require a person to have a valid photo ID or even a Social Security Number to register to vote, because people lacking those things may submit a utility bill, bank statement, government check or other government document bearing their name and address.
Even if a valid photo ID were required, that would not screen out illegals since according to the National Conference of State Legislatures as of March 2023, 19 States allow illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Furthermore, while a Social Security Number is not required by HAVA for individuals to register to vote, even if a valid SSN was required, that would not necessarily screen out illegals or other noncitizens either because noncitizens can get Social Security Numbers. In fact, the Social Security Administration has a number of different types of Social Security Numbers it offers to noncitizens, including to foreigners who are ineligible to work here. While people who are in this Country illegally are not supposed to be able to get a Social Security Number (SSN), a study by the U.S. Treasury Department Inspector General found over 1,000,000 illegals are using the SSN of American citizens, though other sources place the theft of Americans' SSNs by illegals at many times that number.
Thus, while federal law does NOT require a person to have a valid photo ID or a SSN to register to vote or vote, even if the law did require these things the number of States issuing Driver’s Licenses to illegals and the number of illegals with Social Security Numbers would ensure plenty of illegals could still register to vote and vote.
Federal Courts Use the Help America Vote Act to Block States from Screening Ineligible People from Registering to Vote
The HAVA is used to stop States from screening out ineligible people from registering to vote. For instance, when the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was sued for refusing to remove convicted felons who were actually serving their sentences in prison from the voter rolls, a Federal Appeals Court refused to force Philadelphia to remove the ineligible voters finding HAVA did not allow the convicts to be removed from the voter rolls.
When the State of Washington required a prospective voter’s driver’s license number or social security number to be matched BEFORE the voter registration application could be accepted, a Federal Court stopped the law from being enforced, finding it violated the Help America Vote Act. Even efforts to prevent voters from casting ballots in the wrong precinct have been invalidated by Federal Courts under HAVA. In short, HAVA is used to block the efforts of States to screen out ineligible voters.
The purpose behind the Help America Vote Act was to facilitate the efforts of American citizens to vote, to provide for new and improved voting systems and to provide minimum standards for the administration of elections, yet this law is used to undermine the integrity of our elections and facilitate the disenfranchisement of American voters by allowing ineligible people to register to vote and vote in our elections.
Are Illegals Registering to Vote?
The $6 million question is Are Illegals Registering to Vote. The answer is YES. In fact, recent reporting reflects thousands of illegal aliens are being registered to vote all over the Country (usually through State offices of motor vehicles), even when they indicate on voter registration forms that they are not American citizens. In Arizona alone, according to the Democrat Secretary of State, there are nearly 100,000 voters who are registered to vote in federal elections only, because they could not produce proof of citizenship to register for State elections. An audit in the State of North Carolina in 2014 found roughly 10,000 potential non-citizens were registered to vote there. In South Carolina earlier this year, an investigation was launched into the South Carolina Medicaid office due to offering voter registration forms to illegals. Other States, including Alabama, sounded the alarm about illegals being registered to vote at State welfare offices, while others, including Virginia, documented significant numbers of illegal aliens on its voter rolls in recent years.
Additionally, a study in 2014, which was subsequently updated in 2024 by other researchers, estimated 10-25% of illegal aliens were registered to vote in our elections (though this estimate is disputed by the legacy media).
Given the vast number of illegal aliens allowed into this Country by the Biden Regime over the last three and a half years, there are probably untold numbers of illegal aliens registered to vote all over America. (Why else would the Biden Regime allow illegal aliens to enter this Country virtually unchecked in the first place, if the Democrats were not planning on registering as many as possible to vote and then harvesting their ballots?) Given the fact our voting registration protocols rely on the “honor system” to screen out noncitizens (with the language on the form telling people who are not citizens to stop filling out the form), registering illegals and other noncitizens to vote would not be difficult at all.
Is Anyone Trying to Stop this Madness?
Yes, efforts are underway to stop illegals from registering to vote and from voting. For instance, in the State of Texas, voter registration applications are checked against Department of Public Safety data to identify illegal aliens attempting to register (Texas was unsuccessfully sued over the program). In Georgia, polling places in the 2024 election will include warnings against noncitizens voting. Arizona does not allow people to register to vote for State elections if they cannot prove citizenship (these people are registered for Federal elections only, as noted above). Nevertheless, States can only do so much. Federal law needs to change.
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (or SAVE Act) to fix this problem by amending the National Voter Registration Act to require people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship. If the bill makes it through the U.S. Senate (which is unlikely with Democrats in control), President Biden vowed to veto it.
As long as a Democrat occupies the White House, the law will not be allowed to change, since Democrats undoubtedly plan to bank as many illegal alien votes as they can.
American voters need to flood the polls in November and vote for Republicans. Let all of your family and friends know the Democrats are using laws intended to help American citizens vote to disenfranchise American citizens. Drag every like-minded person you can to the polls. Only a resounding victory by Republicans up and down the ballot will shake things up enough in Washington to get the law changed.
(My new book Fake News Exposed: 25 of the Worst Media Lies about Conservatives, Guns, COVID and Everything Else is out at Amazon. You may also pick up a copy of one of my other books at Amazon as well.)