President Donald Trump this week referenced a U.S. Census Bureau report in making claims about noncitizen voting in the 2020 election. According to Trump’s social media post, the report examined voter records against citizenship data and identified 24,000 noncitizens who allegedly voted illegally, described as a preliminary finding.
Election experts have raised significant concerns about the report’s credibility and methodology. Mark Lindeman, policy director at Verified Voting, characterized the methodology as “the weakest” he has observed in a Census Bureau publication and stated the report lacks clarity on which databases were used and does not adequately address potential sources of error. Justin Levitt, a law professor who previously served in the Biden administration, identified three potential error categories: mistakes in the private vendor’s voter file, errors in federal records, and inaccuracies in the matching process itself. Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, noted the report does not meet standards of rigor and transparency expected from the agency, lacks required methodological details, and is unsigned and presented only as a preliminary analysis.
Experts highlighted specific ways the analysis could have produced false identifications, including instances where individuals share addresses, names, or birthdays, or where citizenship status may not have been properly updated in the databases used. The identified noncitizen voters represent approximately 0.015% of total votes cast in 2020, according to calculations based on Federal Election Commission records. David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, stated that even if all identified noncitizen votes went to a single candidate, the number would be smaller than victory margins in each state.
Trump also reiterated his claim that he won the 2020 election and called for passage of the SAVE America Act, which would require citizenship documentation for voter registration and impose nationwide voter ID requirements. The measure has passed the House but has not been brought to a Senate vote. The White House spokesperson defended the report’s accuracy, stating evidence of noncitizen voting “continues to pile up.” The Census Bureau did not respond to requests for comment.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI