After a campaign season filled with baseless claims about noncitizens voting in large numbers, false videos purporting to show evidence for the claim have started appearing on social media.
It's illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal races, and past studies and audits show it happens very rarely. Yet former President Donald Trump and Republican leaders have made it a key talking point and have repeated claims, without evidence, that Democrats are bringing in migrants to vote illegally.
An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released last month found 81% of Republicans are concerned about noncitizens voting in this election.
False videos used as purported evidence to bolster the claim spread online last week, including a video on X that federal authorities attributed to a Russian disinformation campaign.
Given the rhetoric, some voting rights advocates and election officials have said they worry about the potential for harassment of naturalized citizens and non-English-speaking voters at polling places.
"I'm concerned with all this fervor and talk about this, that legitimate voters who just want their voices heard will be pushed away from the process, afraid to come in, will have a very unpleasant experience just because of rhetoric," Joseph Kirk, who runs elections in Georgia's Bartow County, told NPR last month.
As of late last week, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which runs a national nonpartisan election protection hotline, had not heard of any such incidents, according to staff attorney Ryan Snow. Nor had Luis Acosta at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which runs a bilingual Spanish-English hotline.
Snow said should anyone experience voter intimidation or harassment or have any questions about the voting process, they should call an election protection hotline.
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