Can Illegals Vote? Federal Law, Penalties, and Immigration Risks

No, noncitizens cannot vote in U.S. elections for federal or statewide office, and that rule applies whether the person is undocumented, on a temporary visa, or a lawful permanent resident. A violation is a federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000, and for noncitizens the immigration consequences—deportation and a permanent bar from future immigration benefits—are usually worse than the criminal penalty. A small number of local jurisdictions permit noncitizens to vote in certain municipal contests, but those exceptions never reach federal or state races.

What Federal Law Says

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 added a criminal prohibition against noncitizen voting in federal elections. Codified at 18 U.S.C. § 611, it makes it unlawful for any noncitizen to vote in an election for President, Vice President, Senate, House, or any other federal office.¹

State elections are equally closed. No state constitution permits noncitizens to vote in state races. Eighteen states have constitutional text explicitly limiting the franchise to U.S. citizens, and the rest define their electorates using the word “citizen.” Eight additional states passed constitutional amendments in 2024 making noncitizen voting explicitly illegal at any state or local level.²

Green Card Holders, Visa Holders, and Anyone Not Yet Naturalized

Immigration status doesn’t change the answer. A lawful permanent resident who has lived in the country for decades, paid taxes, and raised a family here still cannot vote in any federal or state election. Neither can someone on a work visa, a student visa, or any other temporary status. The only way for a noncitizen to become eligible is to complete naturalization and hold a certificate of citizenship.

This catches people off guard. Green card holders can serve in the military, own businesses, and pay into Social Security, but the ballot box stays off-limits until naturalization is complete. Voting before that point doesn’t just risk a criminal charge; it can end a naturalization application, because immigration authorities treat unlawful voting as a permanent bar to most future benefits.

The Local Exceptions

A small number of local jurisdictions have carved out narrow exceptions for specific municipal contests. As of early 2026, municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont, along with the District of Columbia, allow noncitizens to vote in some or all local elections. Maryland has the most, with roughly sixteen municipalities that have passed ordinances extending local voting rights to noncitizen residents.³ The races vary by place: some cover only school board seats, others include city council and mayoral contests.

Federal law anticipates this. Section 611 includes a carve-out: when a local election falls on the same day as a federal one, noncitizens may vote in the local race as long as the local voting is conducted independently and they have no opportunity to cast a ballot in any federal contest.¹ Jurisdictions that allow noncitizen voting maintain separate voter rolls, separate registration forms, and ballots limited to the authorized local contests.

These programs are legally fragile. Some have been upheld, others struck down, depending on how a state’s constitution defines the electorate and how much authority the state grants its municipalities. New York City’s 2022 ordinance was permanently blocked by the state’s highest court in March 2025. A California appellate court, by contrast, upheld a similar program in 2023.³

Criminal Penalties

A noncitizen who votes in a federal election commits a Class A misdemeanor under 18 U.S.C. § 611. The penalty is up to one year in prison, a fine of up to $100,000, or both. The fine ceiling comes from the general federal sentencing statute for Class A misdemeanors.¹⁴

The registration form itself creates a second exposure. Voter registration applications require a sworn attestation of citizenship under penalty of perjury. Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship on that form is a distinct offense from casting the ballot, and the two can be prosecuted independently.

Immigration Consequences Are Often Worse Than the Criminal Ones

For noncitizens, the immigration fallout is usually the more serious problem. Two federal statutes work together to create what amounts to a permanent bar.

Any noncitizen who has voted in violation of any federal, state, or local law is deportable. The removal ground applies regardless of how long the person has lived in the country or what status they hold.⁵ A long-term green card holder can be placed into removal proceedings over a single vote.

A noncitizen who has voted unlawfully is also inadmissible. That means no new visa, no adjustment of status to permanent residence, and no re-entry after traveling abroad. There is no waiver available for this ground of inadmissibility. If the person also falsely claimed to be a citizen on a registration form, that triggers a separate inadmissibility ground under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii), with its own consequences and only limited waiver availability.⁶

Intent doesn’t help. The Board of Immigration Appeals held in Matter of Fitzpatrick (2015) that the federal voting prohibition is a general intent offense, so the government does not have to prove the noncitizen knew voting was illegal. Confusion about the rules, bad advice, or a genuine misunderstanding of eligibility is not a defense against deportation or inadmissibility.

The Narrow Good-Faith Exception

Both the criminal statute and the immigration statutes contain the same exception, and it is extremely narrow. A noncitizen is shielded from prosecution, deportation, and inadmissibility only if all three of these conditions are met at the same time:

Each of the person’s natural or adoptive parents is or was a U.S. citizen.
The person permanently resided in the United States before turning 16.
The person reasonably believed at the time of voting that they were a U.S. citizen.

All three prongs must be satisfied together.¹⁵ The exception is written for a specific situation: someone raised in the U.S. by citizen parents who genuinely believed they had acquired citizenship through those parents. It offers no protection to a noncitizen who simply didn’t know the law, and none to someone registered in error through an administrative mix-up.

How Registration Enforces the Rule

Every state that requires voter registration requires applicants to attest, under penalty of perjury, that they are U.S. citizens.⁷ The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 reinforces this at motor vehicle offices: every driver’s license application doubles as a voter registration opportunity, and the registration portion must state each eligibility requirement, include a citizenship attestation, and require the applicant’s signature under penalty of perjury.⁸

Most states rely on that attestation alone. A handful require documentary proof of citizenship at registration: Arizona (since 2004), New Hampshire and Louisiana (2024), and Wyoming (2025). Kansas has a documentary proof law on the books that remains blocked by a court order. States also run their voter rolls against the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to flag possible noncitizen registrants.

The practical takeaway for any noncitizen: don’t register, and if a government office offers to register you, decline explicitly. Signing the form is itself a federal crime, and correcting the record later does not undo the immigration consequences.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 611 – Voting by Aliens
2
Ballotpedia News. How Voting Requirements Related to Citizenship Vary Across the U.S.
3
Ballotpedia. Laws Permitting Noncitizens to Vote in the United States
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1227 – Deportable Aliens
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1182 – Inadmissible Aliens
7
Ballotpedia. Proof of Citizenship Requirements for Voter Registration by State
8
U.S. Department of Justice. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA)