Pennsylvania Official Exposes Rare but Real Noncitizen Voting Cases Amid Hype

Al Schmidt, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Commonwealth and former Philadelphia city commissioner, has firsthand experience with noncitizen voting — a topic that has dominated election debates but is often clouded by exaggeration and misinformation.

Back in 2012, Schmidt began investigating voter fraud claims in Philadelphia and uncovered a critical programming error in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s motor voter system. This glitch allowed noncitizens, who are legally permitted to obtain driver’s licenses in Pennsylvania, to register to vote despite their ineligibility. The error dated back to the mid-1990s and was only fixed in 2017.

Schmidt revealed that 168 noncitizens registered to vote through this PennDOT system alone, with another 52 registering by other means. Collectively, they cast 227 ballots in Philadelphia elections. While significant, these numbers represent a minuscule fraction of the city’s roughly 800,000 registered voters at the time.

Importantly, Schmidt highlights that many of these noncitizens were likely unaware they were breaking the law. They had submitted proof of their noncitizen status to PennDOT but were still given the option to register. Language barriers and the tendency to quickly click through forms may have contributed. Schmidt has testified in immigration courts to prevent these individuals from facing deportation due to this government error.

Despite this episode, Schmidt is clear that noncitizen voting is extremely rare nationwide. Audits in Utah, Michigan, Georgia, and Florida found only a handful of potential cases, none approaching any scale that would affect election outcomes.

This reality clashes with the false narrative pushed by former President Donald Trump, who repeatedly claimed without evidence that immigrant voting cost him the 2020 election and continued to stoke fears during his 2024 campaign. Trump even signed an executive order demanding proof of citizenship for voter registration, fueling voter suppression efforts.

Schmidt urges a balanced approach: election integrity matters, but so does protecting the rights of those legally navigating the citizenship process. “Every vote is precious,” he says, “but there’s no evidence to suggest noncitizen voting happens in any widespread way whatsoever.”

As the Department of Justice and Homeland Security ramp up efforts to investigate voter rolls, Schmidt’s experience serves as a reminder that election security must be grounded in facts, not fearmongering or political theater. The real threat to democracy is not the rare noncitizen vote but the corrosive lies that undermine trust in our elections.