Govind Tekale
Could Someone Vote Illegally in Your Precinct?
Election officials in Minnesota are facing an uncomfortable question this week: how many ballots cast in recent elections came from people who had no legal right to vote at all? A federal grand jury has now answered part of that question, indicting ten green card holders accused of registering and voting despite being noncitizens. For anyone who has ever wondered whether the person next to them in line was eligible to be there, the case lands as confirmation that it does happen — even if rarely.
Ten Defendants, Eight Countries, Three Election Cycles
The Department of Justice announced the indictments on September 30, 2026, naming ten lawful permanent residents from Liberia, Germany, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, Lithuania, South Africa, and Ghana. Three of the ten are from Liberia alone. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mullin, and U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen announced the charges jointly, framing the case as evidence of a broader vulnerability in the voting system. Prosecutors say nine of the ten defendants actually cast ballots, with participation spanning the 2022 and 2024 general elections and this year elections, including the August 11, 2026 primary, the most recent vote tied to the case.
Each defendant holds permanent resident status, meaning they can live and work legally in the United States but cannot vote in federal, state, or most local elections. Prosecutors allege they registered anyway, in some cases repeatedly, and showed up at polling places across multiple cycles.
Felony Charges, Rare Convictions
The charges carry real weight. Falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to register or vote is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Voting as a known alien, without the false citizenship claim, is a misdemeanor carrying up to one year and a $100,000 fine. Yet the scale of the alleged conduct sits oddly against what researchers say about noncitizen voting nationally. The Brennan Center has estimated the rate at roughly 0.0001 percent of ballots cast, and a University of St. Thomas review of Minnesota found just three confirmed instances over ten years, out of 13.4 million ballots.
That gap between ten defendants in one state and a near-zero statistical baseline is where the real friction in this story lives.
A Collision of Narratives
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon pushed back hard on the federal framing, calling the indictments proof that noncitizen voting remains vanishingly rare rather than evidence of systemic fraud. DOJ officials, by contrast, point to 1,600 active DHS investigations nationwide and a projected 300,000 cases under review, numbers meant to suggest the Minnesota indictments are the tip of something much larger.
The case arrives alongside an unrelated but attention-grabbing episode: conservative influencer Cam Higby drew condemnation, including from election officials who called his actions outrageous and totally unacceptable, after impersonating voters at a Minneapolis polling site on August 11 while wearing a niqab, apparently to test identity checks. Separately, the Minnesota same-day registration system, which allows a registered voter to vouch for up to eight others lacking ID, has drawn renewed scrutiny as a potential soft spot, though no charges in this case have been tied directly to the vouching provision.
One of the ten, identified as Weihmann, is scheduled for a plea hearing October 7.
Two Numbers, Same Case
What makes this case notable isn’t that it resolves the debate over noncitizen voting, it is that both sides are citing the same ten indictments to argue opposite points. DOJ calls it a warning sign. Minnesota top election official calls it proof the system already works.
Nationally, the Justice Department says 90 people have been charged with illegal voting since the current administration took office, with 50 of those coming in just the past five weeks, a pace officials say will continue as the DHS investigation backlog moves through the courts. Whether that produces more indictments like Minnesota’s, or simply more contested numbers, will likely play out well beyond this one grand jury.
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