Illegal Voting By Non-Citizens Could Decide November Election [Report]

Non-American citizens reportedly have illegally voted in previous national elections and may do so on November 4, possibly deciding which political party controls the U.S. Senate.

Two Old Dominion University political science professors analyzed data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and determined that 14 percent of non-citizens in 2008 and 2010 admitted that they were registered to vote. The scholars “guessed” that 6.4 percent of those actually voted — which is against the law — in 2008 and 2010.

While 6.4 percent perhaps doesn’t seem like much, assuming that number is accurate (which could underestimate the amount of non-citizen voting participation), this cohort could theoretically become the difference-makers in next month’s outcome, according to a summary of their findings published in the Washington Post.

“Because non-citizens tended to favor Democrats (Obama won more than 80 percent of the votes of non-citizens in the 2008 CCES sample), we find that this participation was large enough to plausibly account for Democratic victories in a few close elections. Non-citizen votes could have given Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health-care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) won election in 2008 with a victory margin of 312 votes. Votes cast by just 0.65 percent of Minnesota non-citizens could account for this margin. It is also possible that non-citizen votes were responsible for Obama’s 2008 victory in North Carolina. Obama won the state by 14,177 votes, so a turnout by 5.1 percent of North Carolina’s adult non-citizens would have provided this victory margin.”

There have also been reports that felons voted in the Franken-Coleman election, which is also illegal.

Compared to quite a few countries around the world, U.S. voter registration and ballot casting procedures are very lax.

Many of the Senate contests across the country are dead-heats or within the margin of error according to recent polling. Republicans need to net six seats to take back control of the senate chamber from the Democrats.

With regard to North Carolina, a new state Board of Elections audit flagged 1,425 registered voters who are likely non-citizens.

About 36,000 individuals who voted in the Tar Heel state might have also voted in another state in the 2012 presidential election, the Board previously determined.

Thousands of ballots have already been cast in in states permitting early voting.

Reacting to the findings from the Old Dominion political science duo, The Daily Caller noted, “The issue of voter fraud, be it organized by political parties, people who simply aren’t legally allowed to vote, or some combination of both, is very real, according to this study. And it can make all the difference in the world.”

Assuming this illegal voting data is accurate, are you surprised that most non-citizens tilt toward the Democrats?

[image via Shutterstock]