WASHINGTON STATE — State leaders insist that cases of noncitizens registering to vote in Washington are not widespread or a significant problem.
Appearing at an event with Gov. Bob Ferguson Friday morning, Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall said she has never seen an instance of a non-citizen voting in an election in her 30-year career.
“We keep very tight records in our voter registration database,” Hall said. “We are a voting card state and voters attest to the fact that they are citizens of the United States.”
But the Department of Justice (DOJ) claims otherwise. In a joint announcement this week, Acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd and First Assistant Attorney Pete Serrano claimed that the DOJ had uncovered 405 cases of alleged non-citizens voting in Washington’s elections.
The DOJ asked Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs to confiscate the ballots of the 405 voters and investigate whether they were ineligible to vote. Hobbs denied the request, calling the DOJ’s request a “dumpster fire disguised as a legal document.”
In an interview with KOMO News on Thursday, Hobbs reiterated that cases of non-citizens voting in Washington are rare, but he acknowledged that the state does not require proof of citizenship to register to vote and that the state does not verify citizenship from voter rolls.
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“We don’t have a system to identify whether someone is actually a non-citizen,” Hobbs said. “That’s why when a person goes to register at a Department of Licensing (DOL) office, they are asked if they are a non-citizen.”
It is thanks to this automatic registration that immigration lawyer Len Saunders says he sees immigrants encountering difficulties.
“I have seen at least 15 cases of voter registration that resulted in actual voting by non-U.S. citizens in the last two weeks alone,” Saunders said.
Saunders, who practices immigration law in the border city of Blaine, said many of the clients he saw mistakenly registering to vote had registered while getting a driver’s license.
“That’s the problem here,” Saunders said. “Most of these people don’t realize they broke the law until the federal government tells them. »
Voting in a U.S. election without citizenship can lead to deportation and ineligibility for naturalization, in addition to criminal charges.
“What’s at stake is staying in this country,” Saunders said. “I’m literally bombarded with calls from people saying, ‘I saw this on the news. I’m afraid to leave and go back to Canada. I’m afraid ICE will come to my door,’ and I hate to say it, the state put these people in this position.”
Saunders believes requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote would prevent immigrants from inadvertently registering.
“If they can ask for proof of citizenship to issue an enhanced driver’s license proving you’re American, why can’t they do the same to vote?” he said. “I think there needs to be cooperation between the state and the federal government. I think both need to sit down and say, ‘We have a problem and we need to solve it.’ Ultimately, the people who suffer are immigrants who arrived here legally.”
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