Federal prosecutors charged 16 people across seven states this week, accusing them of voting illegally or lying about their citizenship to register — the latest move in a Justice Department campaign that officials say now covers hundreds of similar cases nationwide.
Story Snapshot
- The Department of Justice charged 16 people across seven states on September 18 for illegal voting, illegal registration, and related election-fraud crimes.
- Three of those charged are Nigerian nationals; the group also includes other noncitizens accused of falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote.
- Attorney General Todd Blanche says the department is investigating hundreds of possible election fraud cases across the country.
- All defendants are presumed innocent, and the charges are allegations that have not been proven in court.
- Independent research groups have long found noncitizen voting to be extremely rare compared with the total number of ballots cast nationwide.
National Sweep Targets Alleged Voter Fraud
The Justice Department announced charges against 16 people on September 18, saying the cases involve “illegal voting, illegal voter registration, and related election-fraud schemes across the country”. The charges cover conduct like noncitizens voting in federal elections and people falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to register. The defendants span seven states, according to a review of the case.
Nigerian Nationals Among Those Named
Three of the accused are Nigerian nationals, including a 56-year-old Massachusetts woman charged with voting as an alien after allegedly lying about her citizenship status in past elections. Other cases tied to this wave of charges stretch from Texas to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where federal grand juries indicted people accused of voting or helping others vote unlawfully in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
In the Northern District of Texas alone, seven noncitizens face charges for unlawfully voting in federal elections or lying about their citizenship. Local reporting on the Texas cases lines up with the broader federal announcement, showing the crackdown reaching beyond any single state or region.
Attorney General Signals a Bigger Investigation
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department is looking into hundreds of possible election fraud cases nationwide, not just the 16 announced this week. Blanche said the department plans to keep pursuing election-integrity cases even after a Supreme Court ruling affected part of the administration’s mail-in ballot policy. That signals more charges are likely coming in the months ahead.
Charges Are Allegations, Not Convictions
The Justice Department itself notes that all charging documents “contain allegations” and that defendants “are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt”. None of the 16 people named this week have been convicted. Some earlier cases in this same enforcement push, like a group of five charged in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, are still working through the courts.
How Common Is Noncitizen Voting, Really?
Election researchers have studied this question for years, and their findings cut against the idea of widespread fraud. A Brennan Center review of 42 jurisdictions covering 23.5 million votes cast in 2016 found only about 30 suspected cases of noncitizen voting — roughly 0.0001 percent of all ballots. A separate 2025 review found noncitizen voting “occasionally happens but in minuscule numbers, and not in any coordinated way”.
That gap matters for how Americans should read this week’s news. The charges themselves are real, and prosecutors will have to prove them in court. But the broader claim driving political debate — that noncitizen voting is happening on a scale large enough to swing elections — has not held up to independent review. For voters exhausted by both sides using election fraud as a political weapon, the honest takeaway is narrower: a small number of specific, provable cases, being pursued through the normal legal process, not evidence of a nationwide scheme.
Sources:
redstate.com, justice.gov, theepochtimes.com, washingtonexaminer.com, reuters.com
