# House Race Separated By 99 Votes Shows Why 'Rare' Noncitizen Voting Does Matter

Approximately 99 votes separate the candidates in a North Carolina congressional race, demonstrating exactly why concerns about noncitizen voting deserve serious attention despite media dismissals of the issue as "rare" and insignificant.

The razor-thin North Carolina contest is among several nail-biter races emerging from Tuesday's midterm elections. Democrat Chuck Hubbard leads incumbent Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx by just 99 votes in North Carolina's 5th congressional district, while in the state's 3rd district, Republican Rep. Greg Murphy maintains a narrow 233-vote advantage over Democrat Raymond Smith. Across the country, similar margins define other critical contests: in Minnesota, Democrat Jake Johnson leads Republican Rep. Brad Finstad by 321 votes, and in Tennessee's 4th District, Democrat Victoria Broderick holds a 280-vote edge over Republican Rep. Scott DesJarlais.

These margins are smaller than documented cases of noncitizen voting errors. In July, Democrat New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that a software error resulted in registering more than 6,000 noncitizens who had identified themselves as noncitizens when applying for driver's licenses at the DMV. Nearly 400 of those illegally registered noncitizens actually voted—more than triple the margin currently dividing the North Carolina congressional race and enough to swing any of the contests mentioned above.

For years, Democrats and their media allies have insisted that noncitizen voting is "rare" and therefore unworthy of serious concern. Last month, CBS News' Leslie Stahl told then-Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon that "there are very few people who are noncitizen who end up voting. Very, very few," before questioning "what's the purpose" of holding those noncitizens accountable. Politico similarly described concerns about noncitizen voting as "overblown," though the outlet later admitted after the New Jersey revelation that there is "little to stop noncitizens from registering to vote if they want to, or even by mistake."

The narrow margins in these congressional races expose the flaw in the "it's rare so it doesn't matter" argument. While a few hundred illegal votes may not determine a presidential election or significantly impact statewide vote totals, they can absolutely decide which party controls a House seat—and by extension, which party controls Congress. Under the current system, prospective voters simply attest under penalty of perjury to their citizenship status, essentially an honor system with minimal enforcement.

Republicans introduced the SAVE America Act, which would have required documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections along with voter ID requirements. Democrats opposed the legislation, and Republican Senate leadership ultimately failed to advance the bill. The close races now playing out across the country demonstrate what's at stake when electoral integrity measures are dismissed as unnecessary solutions to problems that supposedly don't exist. When the margin between victory and defeat can be measured in double digits, every vote—legal or otherwise—matters immensely.

As these races head toward potential recounts and legal challenges, one thing is clear: the "rare" occurrence of noncitizen voting is rare enough to change the balance of power in Congress. That's precisely why it matters.