Voters in five states approved measures barring noncitizens from voting, each with support above 60%. The measures passed in Kansas, Alaska, Arkansas, South Dakota and West Virginia, even as Kansas saw a major Democratic Senate upset and Alaska’s Senate race remained undecided.
Federal law already bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The newly approved measures clarify or put citizenship requirements for state and local elections into law.
Supporters of tighter election rules said the results bolster President Donald Trump and Republicans’ argument that requiring proof of citizenship to register for federal elections has broad, bipartisan backing.
“I would absolutely agree that noncitizen voting bans are overwhelmingly popular,” said Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project. “They enjoy bipartisan support.”
A 2024 Gallup poll found that 83% of Americans, including 66% of Democrats, supported requiring first-time voters to provide proof of citizenship when registering.
The results come as the conservative-majority Supreme Court prepares to consider whether Arizona can require documentary proof of citizenship on its state voter registration form and remove suspected noncitizens from voter rolls before an election. The ruling could shape how states enforce citizenship requirements.
Related measures failed in California and Arizona. California’s Proposition 39 was rejected, with 58.5% voting against it and 41.4% in favor. It would have required voter ID and additional citizenship-verification steps.
Snead said California’s elected leaders had been openly opposed to efforts to prevent noncitizens from voting. He also noted that opponents spent more than $30 million campaigning against the measure.
Arizona’s proposal covered a wider range of issues beyond noncitizen voting, Snead said, and that may have contributed to its defeat.
The five states’ votes followed the failure of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
The bill became a point of contention in Congress, where lawmakers argued over whether to include it in a budget reconciliation package. Trump’s effort to tie it to Department of Homeland Security funding contributed to a prolonged impasse during the department’s shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans did not have enough votes to pass the bill. Democrats, meanwhile, argued it would prevent eligible voters from casting ballots.
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member and senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, said the Democratic Party was “completely divorced” from its voters. Snead said Democrats had taken what he called a “90-10 issue” and turned it into a heavily politicized dispute.
“The left is far out of step with the American public, and they really should be answering the question, ‘Why are you opposed to something that 90% of the public is in favor of?’” Snead said.
He added that only citizens should vote in U.S. elections, arguing that free and fair elections should be decided by American citizens.
Spakovsky welcomed the passage of the state measures but cautioned that they could have limited effect if states cannot verify voters’ citizenship.
He pointed to a Supreme Court case, Republican National Committee v. Mi Familia Vota, which concerns whether federal law prevents Arizona from requiring documentary proof of citizenship for federal voter registration and from removing suspected noncitizens from its rolls. Spakovsky said the decision could affect states’ ability to enforce citizenship rules.
Snead argued that simply asking voters to check a box attesting to citizenship on a federal form has not been enough. He cited recent Justice Department arrests and indictments involving alleged noncitizen voting, as well as New Jersey’s automatic voter registration system, which added 6,600 noncitizens to voter rolls. Nearly 400 of them voted, he said.
Spakovsky said a ruling in Arizona’s favor would address new registrations but would not necessarily resolve questions about people already on voter rolls. He said states would need access to the Department of Homeland Security’s SAVE database to check the citizenship of currently registered voters, and predicted Democrats might seek to cut funding for it if they controlled Congress.
Snead praised the Trump administration’s efforts to expand states’ access to the database, saying the previous process for identifying ineligible voters was cumbersome. He also expressed concern that Democrats could try to defund the system or restrict its use for voter-roll checks.
“I think that we are fast approaching the point where it is fair to say, ‘Why are Democrats actively pushing for noncitizen voting?’” Snead said. “I think that’s the direction that we are going.”
