Post falsely claims 2 million people registered to vote without photo ID in 3 states

In early April, a viral post on X claimed that the number of voters registering without a photo ID in three states is “skyrocketing.”

The viral post claims more than 2 million people in Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona have registered to vote without a photo ID since the beginning of 2024, suggesting many people who are in the U.S. illegally are registering to vote. 

The post says:

“The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania. 

Since the start of 2024

TX: 1,250,710

PA: 580,513

AZ: 220,731

HAVV allows voters to register with a Social Security Number (4 digits). Illegals are not able to get licenses there. But they can get Social Security Cards (for work authorization permits).”

Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk also amplified the claim in a post that has racked up nearly 60 million views. 

THE QUESTION

Did more than 2 million people in Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona register to vote without a photo ID in 2024?

THE SOURCES

• Social Security Administration
• Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson
• Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson 
• Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer
• Help America Vote Act of 2002
• Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project
• U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division
• Federal voter registration form
• Voter registration forms in Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania
• Georgia audit of voter rolls conducted in 2022 

THE ANSWER

No, more than 2 million people in Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona did not register to vote without a photo ID in 2024. 

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WHAT WE FOUND

The numbers in the viral post do not show the number of people who registered to vote without photo ID in Texas, Pennsylvania and Arizona. All three states confirmed to VERIFY that their total new voter registrations this year, including people who provided their ID, are far lower than the numbers cited in the viral post. 

Nearly 200,000 people total have registered to vote in all three of these states combined as of April 2024 – not 2 million. 

The post falsely claims that 1.2 million people registered to vote without a photo ID in Texas. Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a statement on April 3 that this number is “completely inaccurate” and confirmed that 57,711 people total have registered to vote in Texas since the beginning of 2024.

Arizona has not had more than 220,731 people register to vote without a photo ID, as the post claims. As of April 3, about 60,000 new voters had registered in the state this year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said in a post on X.

In Pennsylvania, there were 76,000 new voter registrations in 2024 as of April 3, according to a Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson. This is significantly lower than the 580,513 registrations without ID cited in the false viral post. 

Where the numbers in the viral post come from

The 2 million number in the viral post comes from the Social Security Administration’s Help America Vote Verification (HAVV) data. But HAVV doesn’t track the number of people registering to vote without photo IDs, as the post falsely claims. 

HAVV is a federal system that allows states to verify a voter’s identity with the Social Security Administration. It was established in 2004 under President George W. Bush’s administration as part of a federal law called the Help America Vote Act.

That law required states to verify voters’ identities against their driver’s licenses or other state-issued IDs. If someone doesn't have a driver’s license, they can register to vote using the last four digits of their Social Security number. 

HAVV allows states to send that person’s name, birthday and partial Social Security number to the federal government. The government then confirms the information is accurate and the person is still alive.

According to Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project, HAVV data show the total number of times states have sent verification requests to confirm a voter’s identity – not the number of newly registered voters.

The same person’s partial Social Security number can be checked multiple times in one year, which is one reason why the HAVV number can be larger than the number of registered voters in some cases. 

“In many cases, the same voter’s partial SSN is being checked more than once in a single year,” the Pennsylvania Department of State spokesperson said.

Pennsylvania also uses HAVV to check partial Social Security numbers “not only for voter registration applications, but also for absentee and mail ballot applications,” the spokesperson said. 

Noncitizen voter registration is federally illegal and extremely rare

The Associated Press reports that it’s extremely rare for noncitizens to try to register to vote, contrary to the viral post’s claims that immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally are registering in droves.

For example, a Georgia audit of its voter rolls conducted in 2022 found fewer than 2,000 instances of noncitizens attempting to register to vote over the last 25 years in the state. None of those attempts were successful. 

Federal law requires people who register to vote to confirm under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.

The federal voter registration form, as well as registration forms in Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania, ask people if they are U.S. citizens and warn them that providing false information is a crime. Noncitizens who vote illegally face hefty fines, prison time and deportation.