Researchers: Number of non-citizens who voted illegally much greater that previously reported

by WorldTribune Staff, June 20, 2017

The number of non-citizens voting in U.S. elections since 2008 is far greater than election analysts and the major media have reported, a New Jersey research group said.

As many as 5.7 million non-citizens may have voted in the 2008 election which saw Barack Obama defeat John McCain, Just Facts said, according to a June 19 report by Rowan Scarborough for The Washington Times.

These numbers are more in line with the estimates given by President Donald Trump, who said the number of ballots cast by non-citizens was the reason he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Last month, Trump signed an executive order setting up a commission to try to find on-the-ground truth in illegal voting. The commission, headed by Vice President Mike Pence, will look at outdated voter lists across the nation with names of dead people and multiple registrants.

Just Facts is “a widely cited, independent think tank led by self-described conservatives and libertarians,” Scarborough’s report said.

Just Facts President James D. Agresti and his team looked at data from an extensive Harvard/YouGov study that every two years questions a sample size of tens of thousands of voters. Some acknowledge they are non-citizens and are thus ineligible to vote.

In its research, Just Facts examined data from both sides in the illegal voting debate – those who say it happens a lot and those who say the problem nonexistent, the report said.

In one camp are professors at Old Dominion University in Virginia who attempted to compile scientifically derived illegal voting numbers using the Harvard data, called the Cooperative Congressional Election Study.

In the other camp are the professors who conducted the study and contended that “zero” non-citizens of about 18 million adults in the U.S. voted.

The liberal mainstream media “adopted this position” and proclaimed the Old Dominion work was “debunked,” Scarborough’s report said.


The ODU professors, who stand by their work in the face of attacks from the left, concluded that in 2008 as few as 38,000 and as many as 2.8 million non-citizens voted.

Agresti’s analysis of the same polling data settled on much higher numbers. He estimated that as many as 7.9 million non-citizens were illegally registered that year and 594,000 to 5.7 million voted.

For 2012, Just Facts said 3.2 million to 5.6 million non-citizens were registered to vote and 1.2 million to 3.6 million of them voted.

Agresti cites government audits that show large numbers of non-citizens use false IDs and Social Security numbers in order to function in the U.S., which could include voting.

“Illegal immigrants often claim they are citizens in order to conceal the fact that they are in the U.S. illegally,” he said.


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