Nearly one in 10 eligible voters do not have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, a new survey shows. This underscores how Republican efforts to supposedly prevent noncitizens from voting could disenfranchise millions of people.
If asked to quickly find a passport, birth certificate or naturalization papers to provide proof of citizenship tomorrow, more than 21 million Americans – about 9% of eligible voters – would do so, according to the survey, conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, VoteRiders , Public Wise and the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement (CDCE) at the University of Maryland. Nearly 4 million US citizens – 2% in total – do not have access to any form of proof of citizenship.
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The survey comes as Donald Trump and his allies have used fears about immigration to make the threat of non-citizen voting a major talking point ahead of November. Republicans have exaggerated the threat of noncitizen voting — which is already illegal and rare — and have pushed for federal legislation requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections.
“We all know – intuitively – that many illegal immigrants vote in federal elections. But it’s not something that’s easy to prove,” Mike Johnson, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said last month.
Two states that have already tried measures to require documentary proof of citizenship, Kansas and Arizona, offer case studies on how such a restriction could disenfranchise voters. In Kansas, 30,000 people had their voter registration halted between 2013 and 2016 because of the law. In Arizona, a proof-of-citizenship requirement for state elections has had negative impacts on tribal voters and students.
Researchers also found racial disparities in who has access to citizenship documents. About 3% of voters of color do not have access to documents proving citizenship, compared to 1% of white Americans. Americans of color were also more likely to lack easy access to the documents compared to their white counterparts.
“Our estimates are likely conservative measures of impact,” the researchers wrote in a blog post announcing their findings. “While it’s true that most Americans have access to these documents, most of us don’t walk around town with our passport or birth certificate in hand. If these documents were required for voter registration, most would not have them readily available to take advantage of opportunities they encounter at schools, churches, or other community spaces where registration drives register many Americans to vote.
About 4% of independents, 2% of Democrats and 1% of Republicans did not have easy access to documents proving their citizenship, the survey found.
In addition to citizenship, the survey also found that about 21 million Americans of voting age do not have an unexpired driver’s license, while non-white voters are less likely to have one.
About 30% of Black Americans ages 18 to 29 did not have a driver’s license and 47% did not have one with a current name or address. About 5% of white Americans in the same age group did not have a driver’s license, and 42% did not have one with a current name or address.
“Millions of eligible voters don’t have a current form of photo ID — and it’s not easy to get one,” said Lauren Kunis, executive director of VoteRiders, which helps people obtain ID. “Obtaining an ID can mean tracking down underlying documents for proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, navigating bureaucracy and paperwork, or spending hours in an office that is difficult to reach. For these reasons and many more, voter ID laws make it more complicated, expensive and confusing to vote in America today.”
The research is consistent with a Brennan Center survey from nearly two decades ago, which found that 7% of Americans do not have easy access to documents proving citizenship.
“Current protections against voting by noncitizens are effective: ballots cast by noncitizens are vanishingly rare,” the researchers wrote. “Requiring proof of citizenship wouldn’t solve anything, but it would create major barriers to the registration of eligible voters, especially for those who already face disproportionate barriers to participating in our democracy. We need to make it easier, not harder, for these citizens to participate.”
