Idaho officials work to ensure noncitizens do not vote in state, local elections through order

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Secretary of State Phil McGrane signed an executive order Tuesday to take extra steps to ensure non U.S. citizens do not participate in Idaho elections. 

Idaho elections already have strong mechanisms in place to ensure noncitizens do not vote, but the order, or the “Only Citizens Will Vote Act,” is aimed at bolstering voter confidence, McGrane told the Sun. 

“We have a very good election system, and our clerks work hard to make sure things are working properly, but there’s always the chance that we can do more,” he said.

The Secretary of State’s office already works with the Idaho Department of Transportation to check voter records, but the executive order calls for additional security by partnering with Idaho State Police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to check immigration records. 

The executive order also calls on the Secretary of State’s office to provide information about efforts to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote, and removing them from Idaho voter rolls in its annual report to the Legislature. Additionally, the order clarifies that state agencies shall not provide voter registration materials to noncitizens.

“Idaho already has the most secure elections in the nation, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Little said in a press release Tuesday. “My executive order – the Only Citizens Will Vote Act – directs Secretary of State Phil McGrane to work with local county clerks to scrub our voter rolls and make sure Idaho’s elections do not fall prey to the consequences of Biden’s lawless open border.”

Idaho law requires county clerks to examine voter rolls within 120 days of a general election, and it requires clerks to remove voters from the rolls who have not voted in the previous four years.

Noncitizens voting in Idaho is not a widespread issue, secretary says

There is not widespread voter fraud from noncitizens voting in Idaho elections, McGrane said, but there have been instances where they have registered to vote. 

“There have been instances identified where noncitizens have registered,” McGrane said. “To the best of my knowledge, it’s in the single digits. It’s very small.” 

McGrane said that in his time serving as the Ada County Clerk, there was one instance where a noncitizen was prosecuted for voting. He did not recall the outcome of the case, but he noted that the penalties are “harsh,” particularly for voting in a federal election. It is a felony for a noncitizen to falsely claim to be a citizen in a federal election. 

When flagging potential noncitizens in voter rolls, McGrane said many times they find people who are eligible voters but they simply have not updated their identification records or been in a position to provide that information in years. 

“This is an enhancement to our process, and then it’s also looking at just really basic safeguards to make sure that inadvertently people can’t submit a registration application and have it processed where someone is a noncitizen.” 

Through this process, McGrane said his office aims to ensure that it does not block or impede a citizen who is eligible from registering or voting. In fact, he said there is a renewed effort to ensure people who have been recently naturalized as U.S. citizens are registering to vote. 

“It’s just as important to keep people off the rolls who don’t belong, but it’s also always important for us to continually be trying to get more people to register,” he said. 

How is the executive order different from proposed constitutional amendment? 

McGrane said he has received questions about the difference between this week’s executive order and a proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution that clarifies that U.S. citizenship is a requirement for eligibility to vote in Idaho elections.

Earlier this year, the Idaho Legislature approved a resolution presented by the Secretary of State’s office to amend the Idaho Constitution to add a sentence in its section about the qualifications of electors that says: 

“No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be a qualified elector in any election held within the state of Idaho.”

Idahoans will vote on the proposed amendment in the Nov. 5 general election.

While the proposed constitutional amendment is related to noncitizens voting, McGrane said they’re different.

The executive order is focused on the process of ensuring that noncitizens aren’t voting in Idaho elections, McGrane said, and it creates more safeguards and increased management to prevent noncitizens from being able to register to vote.

There are several cities in the U.S. where noncitizens are allowed to vote in local elections, NPR reported. None of those cities are in Idaho. 

“The constitutional amendment is to say, ‘No, in Idaho, it should only be citizens who participate in our elections, whether federal, state or local,” McGrane said. “That’s really where the amendment is focused, whereas this is procedural.”