White House Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre reassured reporters Tuesday that “it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.” Cue the nationwide sigh of relief: At last, we can sleep easy knowing noncitizens won’t vote, because — surprise! — it’s against the law.
But do you know what else is also “already illegal?”
Drunk driving. Yet roughly one million people are arrested each year in the United States for drunk driving, according to Better Life Recovery & Wellness, and “results from surveys show that this number represents only a small portion of the actual number of alcohol-impaired drivers behind the wheel each year.”
It’s also “already illegal” for someone under the age of 21 to buy or drink alcohol, yet 12.6 million people between the ages of 12 and 20 have reported having at least one alcoholic drink in their life, according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
It’s “already illegal” to steal a motor vehicle, yet 83,220 people were arrested in 2020 for allegedly doing just that, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Similarly, 67,900 people were also arrested in 2020 for alleged, “already illegal” robbery.
Jean-Pierre — who works for the administration that has seen millions of people illegally enter the United States — should know better than anyone that just because something is “illegal” doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
How else did 41 noncitizens cast a ballot in North Carolina in 2016? Or how did 11,198 noncitizens reportedly end up on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls? We have been reliably informed that it can’t happen because casting a ballot as a noncitizen or registering to vote as a noncitizen is “already illegal!”
It could be because the current federal voter registration form simply asks prospective voters to check a box affirming they’re telling the truth that they are a citizen, which amounts to nothing more than the honor system, as Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, previously clarified in these pages.
That’s why Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly tying the Republican-led Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to a continuing resolution that would fund the government through March.
The SAVE Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act and require documentary proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. That means individuals who cannot prove their citizenship would not end up on the voter rolls.
You might think Democrats would support keeping foreign nationals out of our elections after they spent years breathlessly lamenting alleged foreign election interference on behalf of former President Donald Trump.
But it must have been fake outrage, because 198 Democrats voted against the opportunity to safeguard our elections and keep foreign nationals out of them in July — and their reasoning was similar to that of Jean-Pierre’s.
“It is against the law for noncitizens to register to vote and to vote in federal elections,” Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-N.Y., previously said in opposition to the bill.
“We know that it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections,” Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said. “Under current law, noncitizens would face up to five years in prison for attempting to vote in federal elections and even risk being deported.”
But as The Federalist CEO and co-founder Sean Davis noted in a Wednesday post on X, banning states from “confirming citizenship when votes are cast” would “be like having a law that bans speeding… and then bans any method for detecting speed.”
