Non-citizens of the US are being told they can vote in Philadelphia as long as they are residents of the city, despite laws stating that non-citizens cannot vote, a new video from O'Keefe Media Group has revealed.
Milton Jamerson, an Election and Voter Registration Clerk from the Philadelphia City Commissioners Office, told an undercover O’Keefe Media Group journalist the day before the election that non-citizens can vote in elections as long as they are residents of Philadelphia. The Commissioner's Office states on its website that to register, a voter must be a "citizen of the United States for at least one month before the next election."
The undercover journalist first spoke with a nongovernmental organization (NGO), “Ceiba,” which was located across the street from the City Commissioner's Office, which told OMG that non-citizens with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) can vote.
According to Ceiba, individuals with an ITIN are eligible to vote. An ITIN is issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to individuals who are required to file a tax return but do not qualify for a Social Security number. Ceiba's website states that the group "is the only community organization in Philadelphia designated by the IRS as a Certifying Acceptance Agent to facilitate Individual Tax Identification Number (ITINs) applications."
However, an ITIN does not give a person the right to vote, despite the NGO claiming that it does. According to the Associated Press, Pennsylvania bans non-citizens from voting in federal and state elections.
Non-citizens who vote in federal elections can be deported, fined, and imprisoned for up to a year, according to a 1996 federal law. When people register to vote in the US, they are required to swear under penalty of perjury that they are US citizens.
Under Pennsylvania’s constitution, a voter must “have been a citizen of the United States at least one month,” in addition to meeting state and voting district residency requirements.
In 2017, Pennsylvania fixed a loophole that allowed noncitizen immigrants to register to vote when they got a driver's license.
According to ABC, state election officials in 2017 acknowledged that non-citizens may have cast 544 ballots illegally in the 18 years since 2000.