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Floor Speech
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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I read the measure that is being attempted to be brought up by this motion. I want to make one thing perfectly clear. It is already a Federal crime for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections. Every Member of the Senate should know that. In fact, any noncitizen convicted of even registering to vote could face up to 5 years in prison.
Every single State has a law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in Federal elections. The consequences for noncitizens go beyond prison time. Claiming to be a U.S. citizen, under penalty of perjury, while registering to vote or while actually voting are deportable offenses. So it is already against the law with significant consequences for violations.
And, in fact, experts have found that voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare. A study of the 2016 election, for example, found that noncitizen votes accounted for--let me get this right--0.0001 percent. Doing the math, that is about 30 incidents of suspected--not even proven, suspected--noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes cast.
What does that tell us? It tells us that our current laws are working. Don't just take my word for it. The Cato Institute agrees. In November of 2020, the Cato Institute found that ``noncitizens don't illegally vote in detectable numbers.''
So, colleagues, plain and simple, this bill is a solution in search of a problem. What it attempts to do is, once again, make it harder for eligible Americans to vote or to discourage people from voting, particularly American citizens who happen to be experiencing homelessness, for U.S. citizens of color, for U.S. citizens without driver's licenses. Do they have any less of a right to vote than any of us or less of a claim to our country?
I speak today, Mr. President, as both a former California secretary of state as well as being a Member of this body. I have always believed that our democracy works best when as many eligible people participate. That is why I, along with several of our Democratic colleagues, introduced the Freedom to Vote Act. Now, the Freedom to Vote Act does not extend registration or voting rights to noncitizens. What does the Freedom to Vote Act do? It includes pro-voter policies for eligible Americans, like early voting, vote-by-mail. Imagine that, making it easier for eligible U.S. citizens to exercise their franchise. That is the American way. Whereas, this bill would only serve as yet another barrier to participation by imposing not just extremely burdensome but unnecessary requirements on registering to vote.
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