Republicans on two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees worry that millions of new illegal immigrants could fraudulently register to vote as a result of President Obama’s executive order.
The Obama order gives such individuals new access to Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses, enabling them at least potentially to register fraudulently for voting, according to testimony Thursday before the two panels in a joint hearing.
“Some experts have already found that thousands of immigrants have registered to vote in some states,” said Rep. Ron DeSantis. The Florida Republican is chairman of the oversight panel’s national security subcommittee.
Democratic members of both subcommittees, however, pointed to lower numbers of such cases, as well as the harsh penalties for those that do vote.
“The threat we have to discuss here today is virtually non-existent,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch, the ranking minority member of the national security subcommittee. “The president’s executive action leaves federal and state elections untouched.”
He cited findings of minimal voter fraud across the nation.
But Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, countered that “if it’s one, that’s a problem. And the issue today is that there’s potentially five million more.”
Jordan is chairman of the oversight pane’s healthcare, benefits and administrative rules subcommittee.
Echoing Jordan was testimony by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted. Like secretaries of state elsewhere around the nation, Husted oversees voter registration in the Buckeye State.
“No amount of voter fraud is okay,” Husted said. “In the last 15 months alone, 70 elections were decided by one vote or tied.” He also said that 291 non-citizens in his state were registered to vote.
Husted, along with the Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kubach and Hans von Spakovsky, a former Department of Justice attorney who is now a staff member of the conservative Heritage Foundation, pointed to potential solutions to the fraudulent registration problem, including databases of non-citizens’ Social Security numbers or a special mark next to their identification.
Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said he’d only seen two cases of voter fraud in 10 years and that his ability to enforce election law was unimpeded by the president’s executive action.
“I appreciate that there are penalties, but I don’t think they’re given much teeth, given the way this administration has handled them,” DeSantis said.
None of the witnesses could think of an instance where the Obama administration prosecuted an illegal immigrant of voter fraud, though they may have brought a case to the Department of Justice.
