The Constitution is pretty crystal clear that only citizens may vote. Everyone who registers to vote has to attest they are a citizen, and it is a crime for someone who isn’t to vote.

But simply trusting people to be honest on this issue is clearly insufficient. Witness Mayor Jose Ceballos of Coldwater, Kansas, who was indicted this week on election fraud charges after it was found he had not only voted but was elected even though he is a non-citizen.

This year, Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. It would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and have states remove non-citizens from voter rolls. Ohio, which has a list maintenance program, recently found 1,084 noncitizens had registered to vote, including 167 who actually voted.

Election integrity should be a nonpartisan issue, but when the House voted on the SAVE Act earlier this year, only four Democrats supported it. It passed 220 to 208 but it has been blocked by Senate Democrats from a vote. President Trump responded by issuing an executive order requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote, but a federal district judge in Washington D.C. has declared it unconstitutional.

Worse yet, in most states, there is near-zero prosecution of non-citizen voting only encourages more such behavior.  Our UP election security program headed by John Fund is exposing the widespread fraud – and there has been action, but still much work to be done to ensure honest elections.