A wave of misleading claims about noncitizen voting has spread across US social media in recent days, as officials and fact-checkers push back against assertions that undocumented immigrants are casting ballots in significant numbers ahead of the midterm elections.
The disputes center on two separate developments: a resurfaced 2016 video interview of former President Barack Obama, and a data disclosure in New Jersey involving voters registered because of a software error.
A clip circulating on the platform X has been shared thousands of times with claims that it shows Obama encouraging people in the United States illegally to vote in the 2016 election. The footage originates from an interview conducted by actress Gina Rodriguez for miti, a Latino media company, in which Obama addressed common voting myths.
The circulating version has been shortened to omit context. In the full interview, Obama urges eligible voters, including Latino citizens, to cast ballots and does not advocate voting by noncitizens. His remarks responded to questions about whether elections are rigged and whether voting could expose a person’s immigration status.
Separately, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced this week that roughly 6,600 noncitizens had been registered to vote because of a software error, and that fewer than 400 of them had actually voted. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, cited the disclosure to argue that noncitizens are present on voter rolls in large numbers.
The announcement came days after Trump stated in a primetime speech that the Department of Homeland Security had identified 278,000 noncitizens on the voter rolls in New Jersey and three other states. A review of the letters the department sent to those states shows the agency expressed less certainty about that figure and provided no explanation of its methodology.
“It is designed to create a false argument,” one election expert said of the federal data, cautioning that registration figures do not equate to unlawful ballots being cast.
The developments unfold as Trump pushes for stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements ahead of the midterm elections. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal in the United States and is documented to be extremely rare, with multiple state and federal reviews over the years finding isolated cases rather than systemic fraud.
The debate is likely to intensify as the campaign season progresses, with voter-roll accuracy and ballot-access rules emerging as central points of contention between the two major parties.