DHS Voter Fraud Push: Map of States Requiring Proof of ID or Citizenship

A Trump administration official in California criticized the state’s voter ID rules on Monday, alleging that nobody was checking whether voters were American citizens, as it was reported that the federal government plans a wider crackdown on alleged voter fraud in select states.

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Essayli’s comments came as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is set to announce thorough investigations into voter fraud in states including New York, Pennsylvania and California, according to CNN. The department is set to announce more details on the crackdown Tuesday, the outlet reported.

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Nationally, several blue and red states do not require documentary proof of citizenship when applicants register to vote, although several check statuses with the Social Security Administration. At the voting booth or when voting by mail, there is a patchwork of systems in place to check voter ID.

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Under current California law, people registering to vote must attest that they are U.S. citizens by checking a citizenship box on their voter registration form. If the citizenship question is left blank, the registration application will not be accepted.

California does not generally require documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, when a person registers to vote. Instead, applicants provide a California driver’s license or state ID number, or the last four digits of their Social Security number. If they have neither, election officials assign a unique identifier to process the registration.

The information submitted is then verified against government records. California ID numbers are matched with Department of Motor Vehicles records, Social Security numbers are checked against Social Security Administration records, and unique identifiers are verified by election officials.

To register, a person must be a U.S. citizen, a California resident, at least 18 years old on Election Day, and meet other legal eligibility requirements.

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The concerns in California and other states, including Washington, Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia, Nevada and Connecticut, come at a time when the Trump administration has been pushing for a national approach to the way elections are administered, including voter ID.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the power over how elections are administered is given to states.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a growing number of states have enacted laws addressing documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration.

The NCSL says states including Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota and Wyoming have laws requiring documentary proof of citizenship in certain circumstances, while other states use database checks and seek documentation only when questions arise about a voter’s status. Some laws have been blocked or modified through litigation.

Separately, 36 states have laws requesting or requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls, while 14 states and Washington, D.C., use other methods to verify voter identity. States vary widely in how strict those requirements are, ranging from photo-ID mandates to systems that allow voters without identification to sign affidavits or have election officials verify their identity through other means.

The result is a patchwork of rules across the country, with some states relying primarily on voter attestations and others requiring additional documentation or government-record checks.

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Essayli also told Fox News that around 400,000 people had registered to vote without providing identification records, although he did not provide a time frame for the number. It was also not immediately clear if any of that number had gone on to vote in any elections.

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California voters are preparing to decide on Proposition 39, a constitutional amendment that would require voters to present a government-issued ID at the polls or provide identifying information when voting by mail. The proposal would also require election officials to verify citizenship attestations using government data and report on voter-roll verification efforts.

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