was — QUESTION:
On March 3, 2021, Former Vice President Mike Pence posted a commentary in The Daily Signal, and claimed that H.R. 1, a massive voting and ethics bill recently passed in the House of Representatives, would guarantee that millions of undocumented immigrants were registered to vote. Is that claim true?
ANSWER:
No, the bill does not explicitly allow undocumented immigrants to vote. A voting rights lawyer we spoke with says, it doesn't imply that either.
SOURCES:
- H.R. 1- For the People Act- text
- Congressman John Sarbanes- "H.R.1 For the People Act"
- Caleb Jackson- Legal counsel for voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center
- Julia Gelatt- Senior Policy Analyst- Migration Policy Institute
PROCESS:
In March, former Vice President Mike Pence wrote a political commentary in The Daily Signal that went viral.
In his op-ed titled, "Election Integrity Is a National Imperative," he claims a massive voting bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would "ensure" that millions of undocumented immigrants are quote “quickly registered to vote.”
The claim in full reads: "The bill would force states to adopt universal mail-in ballots, early voting, same-day voter registration, online voter registration, and automatic voter registration for any individual listed in state and federal government databases, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles and welfare offices, ensuring duplicate registrations and that millions of illegal immigrants are quickly registered to vote."
But some people online are saying that allegation is just not true.
So we're verifying, is this claim true?
Our Verify sources are H.R.1, the bill itself known as the For the People Act; Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes, who sponsored the bill; Caleb Jackson, legal counsel for voting rights at Campaign Legal Center; and Julia Gelatt, senior policy analyst at Migration Policy Institute.
When making his claim, Mike Pence referenced several sections of the bill including universal mail-in ballots, early voting, same-day voter registration, online voter registration and automatic voter registration for anyone listed in state and federal databases.
Our researchers checked those sections of the bill. None explicitly give undocumented immigrants the right to register to vote.
In fact, “Automatic Registration of Eligible Individuals” is the name of one of the sections.
Next, we contacted the bill’s sponsor, who is a Democrat. A spokesperson for his office sent us a blurb from a fact-check article which said, "This is false."
Sarbanes introduced the bill two years ago in 2019; however, the bill died in the Senate after passing it 234-193 in the House.
But to avoid political spin from both sides our Verify researchers spoke with two non-partisan experts.
"I think it's very misleading to say that millions of unauthorized immigrants would be registered to vote," Julia Gelatt said. "If the government systems are working properly, no unauthorized immigrants should be registered to vote through this automatic system."
She also noted that 17 states plus the District of Columbia already have some form of automatic voter registration through the Department of Motor Vehicles.
If a bill in Congress ensured that undocumented immigrants were eligible to register to vote, Gelatt says that information would be big news.
"If millions of people who are not eligible to vote were being registered to vote, that's something that we would hear about in the immigration world, and that would be a really big controversy in the country overall," Gellat said.
Jackson highlighted some of the biggest voting propositions in the bill, like same-day voting, expanding early-voting to a two-week period and allowing all voters to vote absentee.
"Contrary to some reports by many people who are in opposition to this bill, it does not require every state to send every voter an absentee ballot," Jackson said. "Instead, what it requires is for every state to send every voter who wants an absentee ballot and submits an application for an absentee ballot, a ballot."
He calls Pence's commentary simply "not factual," and says that agencies like the DMV or those that provide Medicare, check to make sure you are a citizen before enabling you to register to vote.
"If that was true, if what, you know, Mike Pence and other people are saying, then you would also have everybody who gets a driver's license when they're 15, or 16, or 17, being registered vote, and that's not what this bill does, and that it doesn't leave the door open for that," Jackson said.
Ultimately information collected at agencies will get sent to each state's election officials, Jackson explained, providing another opportunity to catch potential errors and verify that an individual is eligible to vote.
So we can Verify, this claim is false. H.R. 1 does not ensure that millions of undocumented immigrants will register to vote in federal elections.