Trump's focus on noncitizen voting has led to 160 arrests. That shows it's rare, experts say

The Trump administration's push to root out noncitizens illegally registered to vote has produced about 1,600 voter fraud cases and 160 arrests, Homeland Security Investigations official Matthew Millhollin said at a press briefing Tuesday, ahead of November's midterm elections. The numbers are far smaller than the hundreds of thousands of noncitizen voters President Donald Trump and the Department of Homeland Security have previously suggested exist on voter rolls, and they amount to a small share of the more than 211 million active registered voters nationwide. David Becker, a former Justice Department attorney who now leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, said the low figures confirm that states have generally kept noncitizens off voter lists despite repeated claims of widespread fraud, according to PBS NewsHour.

The arrest data was disclosed alongside Justice Department charges against a Utah postal worker accused of discarding more than 300 mail ballots during the state's June primary. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said the Justice Department has charged 70 people with unlawful voting and registration offenses since the administration began, while Justice Department spokesperson Kiersten Pels said the federal arrests often involve related charges rather than the voting statute itself. In Texas, a review of a federal voter database led to seven people being charged with illegal voting or false citizenship claims out of 2,724 flagged registrations among the state's roughly 18 million registered voters. Kathy Boockvar, Pennsylvania's former secretary of state, said exaggerated fraud claims have fueled hostility toward election officials.

Summarized by PolitiKool from PBS NewsHour’s reporting. Read the full story at PBS NewsHour →