No, thousands of undocumented immigrants are not voting in Wisconsin elections
With the election just days away, one of the most widespread claims on social platforms like X and Facebook is that large numbers of noncitizens are voting.
The false claim has been echoed repeatedly by former President Donald Trump and posted dozens of times by X owner himself, Elon Musk.
And many of these posts specifically sow mistrust in Wisconsin's elections.
For example, online personality Peter Bernegger, an election denier known for filing over a dozen lawsuits against state and local officials, told his 45,000 followers on X last month that "there are 300,000 noncitizens and illegals who are poised to cast a ballot in our elections" in Wisconsin.
Bernegger attributed his statement to data showing the Department of Transportation had issued more than 258,000 driver's licenses to noncitizens since 2019, information he said was obtained through a public records request.
Only U.S. citizens who show valid proof of residency can vote in Wisconsin elections.
DOT spokesperson John DesRivieres declined to confirm those figures or comment on Bernegger's claims, citing the department's policy against speaking about ongoing lawsuits.
But in a motion to dismiss a lawsuit making similar claims last month, attorneys for the DOT said Wisconsin "has many checks in place to ensure that only citizens vote."
In its motion, the DOT noted that people must prove they are U.S. citizens or lawful residents to get a driver's license or ID card. The federal REAL ID Act requires all states to check immigration status before issuing driver's licenses.
And although people are not required to prove their citizenship to register to vote, any noncitizen who tries to do so would be breaking both state and federal law. In Wisconsin, election fraud conviction is a Class I felony, which may result in a fine of up to $10,000, 3½ years in prison, or both.
There's no evidence of noncitizen voting being a problem, Wisconsin Elections Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind told Public Investigator.
A study of the 2016 election by the Brennan Center for Justice found that, across 12 states, only 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting were referred for further investigation. These incidents were out of 23.5 million votes, which means potential noncitizen votes accounted for 0.0001 percent of the votes.
The Wisconsin Election Commission has been made aware of only four alleged cases of election fraud related to citizenship since 2015.
One case happened last year when a Ukrainian woman was charged with a felony for voting as a noncitizen in Mequon's school board election. She said that, due to her limited English abilities, the vote was the result of a misunderstanding.
"The names of people who are registered to vote in Wisconsin and who participate in an election are fully open to public inspection, including by law enforcement entities," said Vetterkind.
Some conservative groups are lobbying for states to require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, supports such legislation due to what it calls "the ongoing immigration crisis." However, the foundation's own data doesn't support fears of noncitizen voters.
Immigration Impact, a news site created by the advocacy organization American Immigration Council, analyzed the Heritage Foundation's database of voter fraud cases. The study found that only 5% of the cases found by Heritage Foundation since the 1980s had to do with noncitizens. The rest all involved U.S. citizens.
In addition, a recent survey from the Brennan Center showed that many U.S. citizens don't have proof of their own citizenship, such as passports and birth certificates, readily available.
Sowing mistrust in election integrity destabilizes U.S. democracy
Misleading or false claims of voter fraud create mistrust in American elections while reinforcing racism and xenophobia, said Audrey McCabe, who oversees the disinformation monitoring program at the nonpartisan government watchdog Common Cause.
That ultimately destabilizes democracy, McCabe said.
"Something like noncitizen voting narratives is just so prevalent," McCabe said. "People are seeing it everywhere."
McCabe leads Common Cause's efforts to fill social media feeds with factual information about the election process. The practice is drawn from research that shows people are less likely to believe false information if they're exposed to accurate information first, or the "inoculation effect."
It helps combat false information without amplifying it, she said.
Since the 2020 election, skepticism in the elections process has skyrocketed, McCabe said, and claims about noncitizen voters exploit existing biases.
"We're also seeing a lot of violence against election workers who are just trying to do their job," McCabe told Public Investigator.
How to avoid falling for political misinformation
When navigating what's true and false online, McCabe said people should look out for what kind of tone is set in writing, especially in headlines.
A flashy headline is trying to grab readers' attention, "not with facts, but with some sort of sensational language," she said.
McCabe also said users should always check the source of information.
To vet voting claims, McCabe recommends referring to trustworthy sources like your state's Secretary of State website, the fact-checking site PolitiFact, the resources provided online by the nonpartisan National Voter Education Week project, and VerifiedVoting.org, which is dedicated to upholding a democratic voting process.
McCabe also said to consider what someone may get out of posting disinformation, and what kinds of things they post on a regular basis.
"Normally, people are causing disinformation because they tend to gain something from it," McCabe said.
This could include more followers or political support by spouting a narrative that is going to stoke fear among their audience.
When false information is spotted, McCabe said to never engage with it to avoid spreading the post. Instead, report it to the platform it's posted on, she said.
"Ultimately, that's what they want," she said. "They want clicks. They want views. And you angry-reacting and commenting on it is only going to make the problem worse."
Quinn Clark is a Public Investigator reporter. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Quinn_A_Clark.
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