30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000
Reuters report attributes erroneous registrations to errors, not organised efforts.
AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made
30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000
Photograph: New York Post (embedded from source)
What this story says
- More than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens were added to US voter rolls between 2000 and 2026, according to a Reuters report.
- Reuters attributed the erroneous registrations to software glitches and clerical errors, stating it found no evidence of organised efforts to register noncitizens illegally.
- Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, used the report to criticise resistance to his SAVE America Act, which aims to enhance voter verification.
- Reuters was unable to determine how many noncitizens actually cast ballots, noting that state data is often tentative.
Who covered it
Percentages are shares of the 9 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. Coverage measured .
Trust
50/100
Craft
65/100
Hype
45/100
9 sources · methodology
Thin on the left so far
None of the 9 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.
This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.
A Reuters report identified more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens on voter rolls across the United States since 2000. The registrations were attributed to software glitches and clerical errors, as well as inadvertent bureaucratic failures, rather than organised efforts to register noncitizens illegally, according to Reuters. The errors occurred in California, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, speaking on the Senate floor, stated that laws prohibiting noncitizen voting have become difficult to enforce. He referenced the Reuters report and the disclosure by New Jersey Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill that 6,600 self-identified noncitizens were registered to vote, with fewer than 400 casting ballots. Lee argued that the findings support his SAVE America Act, a bill that passed the House but has stalled in the Senate. The bill proposes requiring registrants to verify citizenship at registration and implementing voter ID at polls.
Don Palmer, senior legal fellow for election integrity at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that improving driver's license agencies' verification of citizenship during services could be a way forward. He suggested bipartisan support for enhancing these agencies and REAL ID systems to verify citizenship.
Disagreement on the cause of errors
Reuters reported that the erroneous registrations were due to "software glitches and clerical errors" and "inadvertent bureaucratic failures." Senator Mike Lee, speaking on the Senate floor, stated that "even though we have laws that prohibit things like noncitizen voting, those laws have been rendered difficult and essentially impossible to enforce," and that "voter fraud or noncitizen voting, just keeps happening over and over and over again."
What the coverage left out
None of the right-rated reports mention the specific states where the erroneous registrations occurred, a detail provided by Reuters and included in the New York Post and democraticaccent.com reports. Additionally, none of the right-rated reports mention the specific number of noncitizens who may have cast ballots, a point Reuters stated it was unable to determine.
Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 6 times, most recently on 25 Sept 2026, 20:45, and will add the sides that appear.
How each side covered it
Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.
Left
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated left has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Centre
0 rated outlets
No outlet rated centre has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.
Right
9 rated outlets
- Right-rated reports focused on Senator Mike Lee's reaction to the Reuters findings, highlighting his criticism of those resisting the SAVE America Act. Headlines from the New York Post, The Liberty Daily, WND, WND News Center, thedailybs.com, RedState, and Twitchy all featured Lee's strong statements, with phrases like "explodes," "erupts," and "pulls zero punches." These reports presented the noncitizen registrations as evidence of election security failures and Lee's proposed legislation as a solution. The New York Post and democraticaccent.com included a quote from Don Palmer of the Heritage Foundation discussing potential improvements to voter verification processes.
Questions about this coverage
- How did the left and right cover 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000?
- Of the 9 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 0% are rated left, 0% are rated centre, 100% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
- Is 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000 left or right?
- Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 9 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
- Is the coverage of 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000 biased?
- 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000 is one event reported by 9 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
- Which side is not reporting 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000?
- When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
- Which outlets covered 30,000 noncitizens found on US voter rolls since 2000?
- 9 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
- How many noncitizens were found on US voter rolls?
- A Reuters report identified more than 30,000 self-declared noncitizens on US voter rolls since 2000. These registrations were attributed to software glitches and clerical errors.
- What caused the erroneous voter registrations?
- Reuters attributed the erroneous registrations to "software glitches and clerical errors" and "inadvertent bureaucratic failures." The report suggested these were not organised efforts to register noncitizens illegally.
- What did Senator Mike Lee say about the report?
- Senator Mike Lee used the report to criticise resistance to his SAVE America Act, stating that laws prohibiting noncitizen voting are difficult to enforce and that such issues "keep happening over and over and over again."
Read it at the source
9 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.
Left
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Centre
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
Right
9- Mike Lee explodes on voting error that ‘keeps happening’ as huge number of noncitizens found on rolls (opens New York Post in a new tab)
New York Post — is New York Post biased? Our profile of this outlet
- "We Can Kiss Election Security Goodbye": Senator Erupts Over Fact 30,000 Noncitizens Found on Voter Rolls (opens 🔔 The Liberty Daily in a new tab)
🔔 The Liberty Daily — is 🔔 The Liberty Daily biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- ‘We can kiss election security goodbye’: Senator erupts over fact 30,000 noncitizens found on voter rolls * WND News Center (opens wndnewscenter.org in a new tab)
wndnewscenter.org — is wndnewscenter.org biased? Our profile of this outlet
- ‘We can kiss election security goodbye’: Senator erupts over fact 30,000 noncitizens found on voter rolls * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh (opens WND in a new tab)
- Mike Lee erupts after 30,000 noncitizens mistakenly land on voter rolls - The Daily Bo Snerdley (opens thedailybs.com in a new tab)
thedailybs.com — is thedailybs.com biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Mike Lee Explodes: 30,000 Noncitizens Exposed on US Voter Rolls (opens RedState in a new tab)
- Mike Lee Pulls ZERO Punches Calling Out Both Democrats AND Republicans Over the SAVE Act (opens Twitchy in a new tab)
Twitchy — is Twitchy biased? Our profile of this outletOpinion
- Mike Lee explodes on voting error that ‘keeps happening’ as huge number of noncitizens found on rolls (opens wfmd.com in a new tab)
Not rated
0No outlet in this group ran the story.
How did this read?
About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.
