WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Census Bureau released an unauthored, seven-page report titled "Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election, A Beginning Analysis." The document states it draws on a 2020 commercial voter file and various federal administrative records.

Election experts and former Census officials criticized the methodology and transparency of the release. Misty Heggeness, a former Census Bureau economist, stated that her biggest concern is that there is no author attached to the report, which is not common practice within the Census Bureau. She noted that the document lacks a source, citations, and explanation about methods.

Heggeness stated that if the public sees a document like this that lacks integral pieces generally put out with official statistics, that is a good sign to question the validity of the document. Amy O'Hara, former chief of the Census Bureau's Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications, stated that the brief lacks any sort of measures of variance or discussion of bias.

O'Hara questioned whether matches found between voter files and Homeland Security data represented the same people or potential mismatches due to same names in the same state. She stated she found the report's claim that the bureau is "uniquely capable of compiling and publishing statistics on election crime and other forms of fraud" very surprising.

O'Hara stated that even if anomalies are observed in the data, those anomalies are not necessarily fraud. Michael Morse, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's law school, stated via email that he expects the Census data matching exercise is plagued by the lack of unique identifiers in voter records and outdated or incomplete naturalization records.

Morse stated that the brief's lack of transparency makes it difficult to pin down each problem or trust any explanation. He added that the estimated rate of apparent non-citizen voting is both a tiny fraction of total votes and entirely consistent with both types of error.

Why It Matters

The release follows a Department of Homeland Security announcement last month that it had found 250,000 noncitizens on public voter rolls in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The Department of Homeland Security has not publicly disclosed how it calculated the figure of 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls.

Election officials in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania expressed doubts about the accuracy of the Department of Homeland Security's claims regarding noncitizens on voter rolls. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill stated her administration removed about 6,600 noncitizen residents from voter rolls due to a 'serious software error in New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle System' under former Governor Phil Murphy’s administration.

Timeline

On July 19, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it had found 250,000 noncitizens on public voter rolls in California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. On August 19, 2026, President Trump stated in a social media post that an initial Census Bureau analysis of more than 128 million voter records "proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally" in the 2020 presidential election. Also on August 19, 2026, President Trump stated that the final number of noncitizen voters will "explode" after the Census Bureau finishes checking over 32 million additional voter records.

What's New

Additional reporting identifies the Department of Homeland Security as a United States federal executive department. According to data graphics shared by President Trump, roughly 3,800 of the 24,000 noncitizens who voted in the 2020 election were from Mexico.

Data graphics shared by President Trump indicated that hundreds of other voters identified as noncitizens were citizens of Canada, the Philippines, Jamaica, and Germany. The University of Pennsylvania is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.