By Katharine C. Gorka, Chair, Fairfax GOP
Will noncitizen voting impact the November 2024 election? This is a question on many people’s minds, including those of our political party leadership. Members of Congress recently held a hearing entitled, “American Confidence in Elections: Preventing Noncitizen Voting and Other Foreign Interference.” Then on June 7, Governor Youngkin issued Executive Order 31, which is intended to improve Virginia’s voter rolls and ensure better data.
Experts at the Congressional hearing testified that illegal immigrants are indeed voting, although no one knows the exact scope of the problem. Hans van Spakosvky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, testified that when he served on the Electoral Board of Fairfax County in 2011, the Fairfax County Office of Elections identified 278 noncitizens on the county’s voter rolls and discovered that 117 of them had previously cast ballots in multiple elections. Since that time, data from the Virginia Department of Elections shows that approximately 12,500 noncitizens have been removed from Virginia’s statewide voter rolls over the last decade, and in the last year alone over 1,500 noncitizen registrations were cancelled. Of these 1,500 noncitizen registrants, 386 had cast a total 964 illegal ballots in elections over the last four years.
In Fairfax County this past year, 66 noncitizen registrations have been cancelled, and of these registrants, 153 illegal ballots were cast in previous elections. Our Fairfax GOP Election Integrity Team submitted these names to the Fairfax County Registrar.
In spite of the heightened attention to this problem, it will not be easy to fix. Not only has the country been flooded with illegal aliens as a result of the Biden administration’s open border policy, several other policies and practices have been put in place which further facilitate illegal voting. To name just a few: Biden’s Executive Order 14019, issued March 7, 2021, tasked federal agencies with providing mail-in ballot applications and voter registrations to illegal aliens; voter registrations are automatically being distributed and processed by departments of motor vehicles in some of the 19 states that issue licenses to illegal aliens; and federal law forbids state and local election offices from asking for proof of citizenship when registering voters.
Virginia is now considered a battleground state. While Joe Biden reportedly won the 2020 election in Virginia with a 10.2% margin of victory over Donald Trump, new polling shows the two candidates running neck and neck. Therefore if noncitizens vote in the November 2024 election, those votes could determine the outcome, and other reports indicate that illegal aliens will vote for Joe Biden if they can.
The good news is that multiple organizations are working to combat this problem, including Congress, the Heritage Foundation, American First Policy Institute, the Republican National Committee, and, not least, the Fairfax County GOP, which has a robust election-integrity team. The first step to a solution is to shed light on the problem for the public and policymakers. The next step is to bring all state agencies to coordinate on exchanging data with the Department of Elections to clean up the voter rolls – with public accountability.
Governor Youngkin has recently acted to achieve that goal with Executive Order (EO) 31. Commenting on the EO, Jeff Shapiro, one of the two Republican-nominated members of the Fairfax County Electoral Board and Vice Chairman of the Board, said, “The Commonwealth has departed in recent years from in-person, election-day voting, to an election season with relaxed ID requirements, permanent mailing of absentee ballots, and the like. These recent changes mean that election integrity is even more strongly dependent on maintaining the integrity of the voter rolls. Governor Youngkin’s initiative will make use of data the Commonwealth already has in its possession to help the Department of Elections do just that. This initiative is a step in the right direction.”
Amb. Christopher Henzel, the other Republican-nominated member of the Fairfax County Electoral Board and Secretary of the Board, also welcomed the Executive Oder: “The Order ensures that state agencies in Virginia will more efficiently share information that will help strengthen the integrity of elections in the Commonwealth, and also make them smoother and more convenient for voters.”
But Henzel also added, “There are more common-sense steps needed – for instance photo ID for all voters – but that will require legislation, and with the General Assembly currently divided, that’s not happening. I’m grateful that Governor Youngkin is doing all he can on his own, and I hope in the future there will be a legislature that supports his efforts to ensure the integrity of our elections.”
What can you do to help ensure the integrity of elections in Virginia? Sign up here to be an election officer and help administer the elections in each polling place.
You can also Join the Fairfax GOP and support us financially so that we can continue to fight to protect your vote. As a member of the Fairfax GOP, you will be notified of other opportunities to participate in voter integrity efforts being coordinated by the Republican National Committee, the Trump Campaign and Fairfax GOP teams. Above all, please vote! We have a primary on June 18th, with early voting through June 15th. The only way to be sure your vote will count is if you actually vote!