Reuters: “Trump says noncitizen voting is a widespread Democratic plot to influence elections. A Reuters data analysis reveals a far different picture: a small number of often inadvertent violations. The finding comes amid an expanding federal crackdown that has ensnared hundreds of people, many of whom never cast a ballot…According to U.S. President Donald Trump, America is a hotbed of voting fraud – and foreigners are major culprits. He has portrayed noncitizen voting as part of a broad Democratic Party conspiracy to dilute Republican power. He has claimed on social media that “Crazed” Democrats allow unvetted migrants to enter the U.S. “SO THEY CAN VOTE, VOTE, VOTE.” He has called for elections to be nationalized due to the danger of noncitizens casting ballots. And he has described illegal voting by noncitizens as so widespread that “cheating is rampant in our elections.” He has offered little evidence for his allegations of widespread fraud, however, including his claim in a primetime speech on Thursday that 278,000 noncitizens are registered to vote. Now, a new Reuters analysis of federal court data undercuts Trump’s assertion that a conspiracy of noncitizen voting is afoot in America…

Case records show that federal prosecutors have charged just 129 people under a federal “voting by aliens” statute created by Congress in 1996, Reuters found. More than two-thirds of those prosecutions – 86 – have been filed during Trump’s five-and-a-half years in office. In none of the cases did prosecutors allege a coordinated effort to influence an election. And no defendant was accused of being paid to vote. Instead, many appear to stem from voter confusion, miscommunication with election officials or administrative errors…”