GOP efforts to crack down on noncitizen voting extend to state ballot measures

Eight states will have constitutional amendments backed by Republican lawmakers on the November ballot designed to make clear that only American citizens can vote in elections in those states.

But it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections in those states and at the federal level, and it rarely happens.

Election experts warn it’s one of the ways Republicans at the national and state levels are seeking to drive the unsubstantiated narrative that noncitizens are voting in large numbers in ways that could affect the outcome of elections up and down the ballot amid a heated presidential race.

The efforts could stoke people’s fears and play on their misconceptions about voting in U.S. elections, they say, and indirectly legitimize claims by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans regarding a problem that is largely nonexistent.

“These proposed constitutional amendments are aimed really at two things: preventing local governments in those states from allowing non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections, and advancing this false narrative that non-U.S. citizens are somehow participating in U.S. elections in large numbers, which is totally unsupported by any evidence or facts,” said Jonathan Diaz, the director of voting advocacy at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.

Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has long made false claims that noncitizens are voting in elections and that Democrats have helped them enter the country to cast those ballots. The Republican National Committee’s election integrity campaign, which aims to recruit 100,000 poll monitors and lawyers for the upcoming election, has also emphasized noncitizen voting as a danger that could imperil the results this fall.

Meanwhile, GOP