Indiana Officials Ask Feds To Verify Citizenship for Over Half a Million Voters
Indiana officials are asking the federal government to verify the citizenship status of over half a million voters, including voters who are living overseas or who registered without a driver’s license.
Secretary of State Diego Morales (R) and Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) sent the names of 585,774 registered voters who did not register with a state ID to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to have their citizenship verified, according to a letter to agency director Ur M. Jaddou.
It’s long been illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. But over the past year and especially in recent months, Republicans have centered their litigation efforts on questioning the citizenship status and voting eligibility of registered voters and attempting to get them purged. There are 15 active anti-voting cases that pertain to noncitizen voting, according to Democracy Docket’s database.
Democracy Docket reached out to Rokita’s office with questions about the request. In a statement, Morales said he is responding to “concerns from county clerks regarding the increase of absentee ballots from overseas voters.”
“The inquiry with USCIS is not a voter list maintenance activity and will not result in an effort to remove registrations from the voter registration list. The registration status of the 585,774 registrations will not be impacted.”
Because the registration status will not be impacted, Morales said it isn’t necessary to notify the 585,774 individuals.
When reached for comment, a spokesman for USCIS pointed to the agency’s online information service called SAVE, which allows authorized agencies, including state election authorities, to verify certain individuals’ citizenship or immigration status. The agency didn’t comment directly on the request.
Morales and Rokita asked that the USCIS fulfill its obligations under federal law, which requires the agency to respond to federal, state or local inquiries about the citizenship or immigration status of any individual within its jurisdiction.
“Under current law, there is no single method for verifying to a reasonable degree of certainty the citizenship of all Indiana voters,” the letter sent on Oct. 11 said. “We therefore seek to utilize all tools at our disposal to verify voters’ citizenship and help ensure the integrity of our state’s voter registration system.”
The letter said individuals whose eligibility is being questioned include voters who registered without providing a driver’s license number or social security number and voters living overseas.
County election officials will be notified if USCIS identifies “non-U.S. citizens” on their voter registration lists, according to the release.
The deadline to register to vote in Indiana was Oct. 7. Early voting began Oct. 8.