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Thirty thousand mistakes. How red and blue states added non-citizens to the US voter rolls
Reuters found the errors stemmed mainly from DMV processing glitches and clerical mistakes, and experts said the totals are too small to affect elections.
On Wednesday, September 23, a Reuters analysis found software glitches and clerical errors in state motor-voter systems added more than 30,000 self-declared non-citizens to United States voter rolls since 2000.
Underlying these errors are state motor-voter systems created under the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which registers applicants to vote during driver's license processing; the initiative passed with bipartisan support under President Bill Clinton.
Bureaucratic mistakes have occurred across 11 states, with New Jersey reporting about 6,600 non-citizens added between June 2023 and June 2024, and Virginia documenting more than 4,500 in 2025 alone.
The White House pressed Congress to pass the SAVE America Act requiring proof of citizenship to vote, though David Becker, CEIR executive director, argues such legislation would not prevent systemic processing failures.
Experts note these instances represent a small fraction of more than 170 million registered voters; Brookings Institution governance expert Elaine Kamarck states there is "no evidence that massive numbers of non-citizens are voting.