House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday admitted that he and Republicans pushing an “election integrity” bill do not have data to back their claim that large numbers of people without American citizenship are voting in elections.
Johnson — who attempted to help Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election loss — is advocating for an “election integrity” bill to stop noncitizens from voting, even though he acknowledged that is already illegal.
“Are you saying that there are currently non-U.S. citizens voting in federal elections? And if that's what you're saying, then do you have an estimate of how many?” a reporter asked the Louisiana Republican at a news conference about the legislation.
“I mean, the answer is that it's unanswerable. That is the problem. States are not allowed right now to prove — if somebody claims on that simple form that they're a citizen, they can vote — they're not allowed to prove whether it's true or not,” Johnson said. “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections, but it's not been something that is easily provable. We don't have that number.”
Johnson also denied assertions that the legislation is merely a messaging bill to back up Trump’s thirst for revenge over losing the 2020 election. Trump has falsely claimed that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the past two presidential elections to hand Biden the 2020 victory and Hillary Clinton the popular vote win in 2016.
“To suggest that this is some sort of revenge tour [for Trump] is kind of a silly notion,” Johnson said. “We have a constitutional responsibility, we have an obligation to the people that we are elected to represent, to every citizen in this country, to ensure that our elections are secure.”
