The original commentary below was also published with author Patrice Johnson's permission at The American Thinker, September 12, 2024: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/
By Patrice Johnson, Chair, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections | September 16, 2024
Last week, former president Donald Trump noted the need for stronger border protections to stop illegal voting.
He's right — noncitizen voting is a threat to our republic. And Democrats know it — since 2021, they have welcomed millions of illegal migrants into the country. It’s not surprising some of those same illegal migrants are registered to vote — even though it’s against the law, cancels out a legal citizen’s vote, and puts illegally registered immigrants at risk for deportation.
But in August, we learned that Democrats aren’t stopping at the border. They’ve gone global, committing $300,000 to register and influence 9 million overseas voters — even though the federal government says only 2.4 million legal voters live in other countries.
For those counting at home, that's 6.4 million votes that Democrats want to find...that don't exist.
For many years, conservatives believed that election cheating existed but was very limited. In 2020, we were awakened to sophisticated dark money activities going on behind the scenes that made it easier for people to register and to vote...but had the unfortunate consequence of weakening nearly every step of the election process.
Now conservatives are rightly focusing on reducing illegal immigration at the border and requiring improved election processes. Unfortunately, Democrats are one step ahead — and in the digital age, they’re not stopping at the border. They’re targeting overseas ballots that are among the most vulnerable to exploitation and that have the least attention paid to them to ensure their accuracy.
And, almost like magic, a spokesperson for the group spending the money, Democrats Abroad, told CBS News that those ballots are likely to favor Vice President Kamala Harris.
Overseas voting is a time-honored tradition in America. U.S. citizens living privately abroad or as members of the U.S. military should not have their right to vote hindered because of their geographical location, which is why the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) was created.
What federal law doesn’t do is provide clear, commonsense rules for how overseas people register or how their votes are compiled and counted. This means that states can make their own laws — even bad ones. For example, in more than 31 U.S. states and territories, overseas citizens are allowed to request ballots and cast their votes electronically via email.
An overseas email ballot request triggers the local clerk to respond — again, via email — and request voter identification. So far, so good, but most of these states do not require a Social Security number or a state ID. All the email requester who doesn’t have any identification has to do is check a box that says, “I don’t have the above identification.” And just like that, the requester receives a voter ID and a PDF ballot that can be cut and pasted into a return email.
The voter verification process also asks the email requester for a local address, but no one verifies that the requester ever lived in or has any connection to the state.
So UOCAVA votes, from at least 31 states, can be counted without voter identification and without verifying a residential tie to the state.
Given the above scenario, it’s easy to imagine a flood of bot requests for ballots from digitally generated email addresses. And of course, the returned bot ballots will all come in at the last minute.
The answer to Trump's debate concern and to overseas ballots is the same straightforward answer: only citizens — native-born and naturalized alike — should vote. That's why next week is "Only Citizens Vote" Week, to remind voters, election officials, and our elected leaders to transparently follow the nation's law.
It's the only way to ensure trust in the system. Unfortunately, Democrats from the White House on down prefer to pretend borders don't matter — so the rest of us have to.
Patrice Johnson, chairs Pure Integrity Michigan Elections (PIME) and Michigan Fair Elections (MFE) . A former teacher, Patrice has founded five successful companies and served as senior executive with a Fortune 100 technology company. In 2017, she authored the book, the Fall and Rise of Tyler Johnson, the basis of a PBS documentary film, Finding Tyler. Questions or comments? Contact patrice@mifairelections.org.
Only Citizens Vote is a Coalition who believe that only United States citizens should be allowed to vote in any American election—local, state, and federal—and that proof of United States citizenship must be required to register to vote.
To that end, the Coalition has established "National Only Citizens Vote Week," and issued a citizens Call to Action to "shine the light" on the issue of noncitizens voting in our elections. Only Citizens Vote is providing Call To Action toolkits this week to assist citizens in taking action. Monday's toolkit is a sample document that you can download and use for a letter to the editor of your favorite newspaper, posting to social media, a press release, or radio announcement. You can also copy text for a letter to the editor below.
Monday Toolkit
Shine The Light
Speak to neighbors and show them information from www.onlycitizensvotecoalition.com
Write letters to the editor to your local newspaper.
Call in to talk radio and call for local officials to address the issue of noncitizen voting.
Host public sign rallies to bring attention to this issue.
Take pictures of your event and send them to megan@onlycitizensvotecoalition.com
Sample Letter to the Editor
Use all or part of the commentary below and send this to your local newspaper or blog:
Dear Editor,
As a voter in (City/County) I would like to shed light on serious concerns in our community about noncitizens voting in our upcoming federal election. This includes both legal noncitizen aliens, as well as those in our country unlawfully.
This topic is getting increasing coverage in the news, but I am afraid that not all voters are aware that it is a problem at all, let alone the devastating impact it could have on our election results and nation’s future.
I believe everyone in our community would agree that only American citizens should vote in the American elections that determine the future of our country. Only Canadians vote in Canada, only Italians vote in Italy, and only Americans should vote in America. It’s not “suppression,” or “lack of inclusion” - it's law; and common sense.
Federal law, including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, demands only U.S. citizens vote in U.S. elections. But these laws have more loopholes than they have enforcement provisions, including no requirements to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Yes, it is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. It is also illegal to rob a bank or steal a car, but it happens every day. Why would anyone expect this federal election law to be upheld with no meaningful enforcement or penalties?
Our state provides state ID and driver's licenses to noncitizens, REAL ID does not prove citizenship and you don’t have to be a citizen to get a social security number. These documents are all that are needed to cast a vote.
Local election officials, state legislators and Congress must take action to ensure that only U.S. citizens are determining who wins the presidency or congressional representation.
But first - every American voter - including those in (city/county) must be aware that is a very real problem, and one if not addressed, can negate the political choices they lawfully mark on their ballots.
It’s time for every concerned citizen to shine a light on the problem of noncitizen voting.
Learn how We The People can win back and secure OUR Future.
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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author or editor, and do not reflect the official position of the Pure Integrity Michigan Elections. Every article written by an PIME author is generated by the author or editor alone. However, links or images embedded within the article, may have been generated by artificial intelligence.