After interpreting Social Security Administration information, a social media post went viral last year, suggesting a rise in voter registrations in key states that even permit unlawful immigrants to obtain Social Security numbers. Election officers and election laws experts disagree on the meaning of the data, but it still raises more pressing issues than it answers.
” The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania”, an account named” Close Wokeness” posted on X.
Since the start of 2024:
TX: 1, 250, 710
PA: 580, 513
AZ: 220, 731
Voters can register using their Social Security Number ( 4 digits ) through HAVV. Laborers are unable to obtain licenses it. However, they may obtain Social Security Cards to obtain work authorizations.
The post, which linked to public SSA files, gained quite a bit of interest, including from X CEO Elon Musk, who called the information “extremely concerning”. The social media firestorm’s reaction to the viral claim is legitimate, but the data does n’t seem to support the strict standards for citizenship verification.
What the HAVV Numbers Indicate
According to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, states must use the animal’s information, such as a driver’s license, to verify voter information in national elections. According to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, HAVA “also mandates that ]state motor vehicle agency ] leaders and the director of social security reach contracts to verify the name, date of birth, last four SSN figures, and any data recorded in the Social Security Administration’s information regarding the death of an individual.”
Two years later, the Social Security Administration introduced a new system called Help America Vote Verification ( HAVV ) to allow states to use Social Security records to verify voter information. HAVV you verify voters who state DMVs does not be able to evaluate because some voters register to vote using a Social Security number rather than a driver’s license number or state ID number.
The HAVV statistics cited in the post “does not reflect the numbers of newly registered voters,” according to a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, Matt Heckel, who told The Associated Press. They reflect the number of confirmation calls a condition or its counties have sent to SSA via the HAVV program.
Heckel told the AP that “in many cases, the same voter’s partial SSN is being checked more than once in a single year” and that the state will also use HAVV to check absentee and mail-in ballot applications. Jonathan Marks, Pennsylvania’s deputy secretary for elections and commissions, testified in 2022 that the state uses HAVV to verify the Social Security numbers on absentee and mail-in ballot applications. Marks claimed that the applications are “verified numerous times in the year leading up to each election.”
However, Heather Honey, executive director of the Election Research Institute and cofounder of Verity Vote, suggested Pennsylvania’s use of HAVV violates its HAVV user agreement. HAVV is intended to be used to verify information for voters already registered on state voter rolls, according to the agreement.
Additionally, the SSA mandates that” states must only submit a request to us for new voters who do not present a valid driver’s license during the voter registration process.” However, Honey claims that Pennsylvania and other states are n’t making that clear to voters, increasing the odds that voters will register to cast ballots using their Social Security number’s final four digits when they should n’t.
Pennsylvania legislators nearly two years ago asked for an explanation for the Department of State’s improper use of the HAVV system, Honey told The Federalist. The Department disparages those who identify the issues and prioritizes efforts to censor and silence them, according to the Department, rather than taking into account the actual vulnerabilities identified in Pennsylvania’s electoral system.
Other Factors at Play
According to Jim Womack, president of the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, “procedural, statutory, and calendar-related causative factors” may also be at play.
From January 13 to the present, Pennsylvania received a lot of requests for verification, according to HAVV data. ” The PA primary in 2024 is April 23″, Womack explained. That would explain the numerous recent SSN look-ups in HAVV in advance of the April primary. According to Womack, the increase just before the election may be a result of “more aggressive list maintenance activity.”
However, Heckel and Marks ‘ admission that Pennsylvania uses HAVV to verify mail ballot applications may contribute to the rise in the number of applications in the months leading up to Pennsylvania’s April election. Womack also noted Pennsylvania’s 2020 data is rather low in March and April, likely due to covid- 19 restrictions hindering election office operations such as voter registration and verification.
Higher HAVV numbers are also high in states that engage in “aggressive, cyclical list maintenance activity,” Womack claimed, adding that higher numbers could indicate that election officials are “are actually doing a thorough job of verifying SSNs against birthdays and names.” He also suggested that Texas’s withdrawal from the leftist-linked Electronic Registration Information Center ( ERIC ), “even though the HAVV look-up tool is n’t really designed for list maintenance purposes,” might be to blame.
Kudos to the Texas Secretary of State and her election staff for their disregard for ERIC’s instructions to use HAVV for list maintenance, he said.
Are the HAVV Numbers Even Accurate?
The 1.2 million figure [which the viral post claimed represented the number of voters registering in Texas without photo ID] was provided by the Social Security Administration’s ( SSA ) website, which is supposed to show how many states have requested to verify an individual’s social security number. Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson clarified the confusion by saying,” The SSA website is supposed to report the number of times states have asked to verify an individual’s social security number.
” The SSA number is clearly incorrect”, Nelson continued,” and we are working now to determine why there is such a large discrepancy”. However, her office has not responded to The Federalist’s request to clarify whether she was correct to say that the 1. 2 million figure represents the number of verification requests Texas has sent.
The Federalist repeatedly contacted the Social Security Administration and was informed that” we are unable to give it the necessary attention in this forum due to the technical nature of your inquiry.” This reporter was directed to the Social Security Administration’s Office of Public Inquiries and Communications Support, which has yet to provide answers.
Voting Without Citizenship Proof Is Still A Major Issue
Concerned social media users were criticized by The Associated Press for their concern that illegal immigrants use Social Security numbers to register to vote. The AP claimed that only U.S. citizens can cast ballots in federal elections, and that noncitizen voting is incredibly uncommon because states have laws to prevent it.
However, further down in its “fact check,” the AP stated that a voter was required to show proof that he was a citizen of the United States when registering to cast a ballot in federal elections. No documentation of citizenship is required for federal election registration. In fact, states have been prevented from attempting to impose it.
Take Arizona, for example. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer called the post “extremely” false and said the state has had “fewer than 35, 000 registrants ( out of 4.1 million registered voters in Arizona ) who have n’t provided documented proof of citizenship”. However, that means that thousands of voters in a crucial swing state that President Joe Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 11, 000 votes are unable to demonstrate their eligibility to cast a ballot.
A 2004 law that required documentary proof of citizenship to cast ballots was approved by Arizona voters, but a 2013 Supreme Court decision forced the state to accept the federal voter registration form, which only requires applicants to check a box claiming citizenship. As my colleague M. D. Kittle remarked, Arizona allowed voters who could n’t provide proof of citizenship to cast ballots as “federal- only” voters. However, it was forced to do so in 2018 as well.
According to Scot Mussi, president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, this led to an “explosion of federal only voters.” The number of voters who used a federal- only ballot ballooned from 1, 700 people in 2018 to 11, 600 in 2020, according to AZ Free News.
The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman is a correspondent for elections.
