ST. LOUIS – We’re less than one month away from the 2024 general election. Most U.S. citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to vote as long as they are registered. However, for some individuals living in America without citizenship, their voting rights can be complex.
Federal law prohibits a noncitizen from voting in elections involving federal offices, such as President of the United States. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 includes provisions that restrict voting in federal elections exclusively to U.S. citizens.
When it comes to state and local elections, rules may vary depending on whether noncitizens may legally participate. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, as of March 2024, only Washington, D.C. and a handful of U.S. cities, including San Francisco and a few others in Maryland and Vermont, allow noncitizens to vote in certain local elections.
For Missouri and Illinois, the two states of the St. Louis metropolitan area, both express the right to vote the United States citizens within their state constitutions, but neither has a provision in their constitutions that explicitly states that noncitizens cannot vote in non-federal elections.
Ambiguities around the possibility of noncitizen participation in elections also came to attention in a FOX Files report last weekend, which revealed that some noncitizens in the St. Louis area received mail urging them to vote in the presidential election.
With all of this in mind, can noncitizens legally vote in Missouri or Illinois elections? Here’s a closer look for both states.
Missouri
Short answer: No, noncitizens cannot legally vote in Missouri.
According to Missouri Constitution Article VII, Sec. II, “All citizens of the United States, including occupants of soldiers and sailors homes, over the age of eighteen who are residents of this state and of the political subdivision in which they offer to vote are entitled to vote at all elections by the people.”
Missouri law also requires voters to present a photo ID to cast a non-provisional ballot in elections.
JoDonn Chaney, Director of Communications for the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, tells FOX 2 that a noncitizen could receive a Missouri ID if they are a documented immigrant, but cannot if they are an undocumented immigrant.
Anyone who registers to vote in Missouri is required to present a form of personal identification, such as a Missouri ID or driver’s license, to complete his or her registration. That alone would prevent a noncitizen who is an undocumented immigrant from voting, since he or she would not have proper identification.
In the hypothetical case that a documented immigrant with a Missouri ID who was also a noncitizen attempted to register to vote, the state of Missouri has measures in place that would prohibit that individual from having his or her voter registration authorized.
Chaney said Missouri has safeguards in place through which local election authorities would check with the Social Security Administration to verify if an individual attempting to vote can be registered based on their citizenship. If that individual is a documented immigrant with an ID but not a citizen, they would be ineligible to register to vote.
Chaney said, to his knowledge, the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office has not encountered a situation in which a noncitizen attempted to register to vote or voted in a state election.
The office has turned over information to local prosecutors in the past for dealing with voter fraud, though those matters involved individuals attempting to vote twice rather than vote as a noncitizen.
Also of note, Missouri will also present Amendment 7 to voters in the November 2024 election, with ballot language reading, in part: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to: Make the Constitution consistent with state law by only allowing citizens of the United States to vote{?]”
Missouri is one of eight states voting on an amendment that could expressly ban noncitizen voters this fall, something prohibited by only seven other U.S. state constitutions to this point, according to Reuters.
Additionally, there are also no municipalities in Missouri that expressly allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Illinois
Short answer: No, noncitizens cannot legally vote in Illinois.
According to Illinois Constitution Article III, Sec. I: “Every United States citizen who has attained the age of 18 or any other voting age required by the United States for voting in State elections and who has been a permanent resident of this State for at least 30 days next preceding any election shall have the right to vote at such election.”
Unlike Missouri, Illinois does not have a general voter ID law.
This means, in order to legally cast a vote in Illinois, with or without a photo ID, one must be registered to vote. During the Illinois voter registration process, an individual must attest to being a U.S. citizen, under the penalty of criminal prosecution as required by the federal National Voter Registration Act if he or she provides false information on their citizenship.
In regards to the voter registration process, voter ID requirements may vary depending on the municipality one attempts to register to vote in. Prospective voters need two forms of Illinois residency proof, though a photo ID isn’t always required.
Essentially, this opens the door to the possibility of a noncitizen falsely attesting to being a citizen, presumably by signing a form to claim citizenship, if they have other applicable documentation materials aside from a state ID required to register.
Matt Dietrich, a spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections, informed FOX 2 of one prior instance that raised the alarm.
In 2019, the Illinois Secretary of State discovered a coding error in its automatic voter registration system that resulted in 545 noncitizens being forwarded to local election authorities and registered to vote between July 2018 and December 2019. Officials learned that seven of those 545 noncitizens had cast ballots within that timeframe.
Dietrich says all ineligible voters were removed from voter rolls when the error was discovered and the coding error was fixed.
Dietrich did not report any other instances in which a noncitizen illegally cast a vote in Illinois. He added such action would constitute a federal crime, which could lead to severe consequences for noncitizens, like deportation.
Additionally, there are also no municipalities in Illinois that expressly allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
