Federal prosecutors in Pennsylvania on Friday charged nine more residents with voting in federal elections while not U.S. citizens, according to a Justice Department press release. Votebeat reported the new cases bring Pennsylvania’s total to 20 since September, with Election Day less than two weeks away.
The charges were announced jointly by David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Brian Miller, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department said. The department said each defendant voted “despite knowing that they were not U.S. citizens,” and that the cases were investigated by Homeland Security Investigations.
🗳️ PENNSYLVANIA: Nine non-citizens have been charged separately with illegally voting, despite knowing that they were not U.S. citizens.@MDPAnews @USAO_EDPA @HSI_HQ
🔗: https://t.co/9AUUdwglHt pic.twitter.com/q5GRIEUDXX
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) October 23, 2026
According to the Justice Department, eight of the nine defendants are lawful permanent residents, meaning green card holders, while the immigration status of the ninth was not listed. The department said the defendants are citizens of Poland, Cuba, Israel, Kenya, Russia, Greece and the Netherlands, and live in communities ranging from Philadelphia and Harrisburg to Snyder, Luzerne, Lehigh, Montgomery and Monroe counties.
The charging documents allege votes cast in the 2022 and 2024 general elections, according to the release. The Justice Department said two defendants are accused of voting in both elections, one of whom faces two counts and up to two years in prison. The department said the others each face a maximum of one year in prison, a fine, or both.
“These cases are important because the crime of illegal voting undermines the integrity of our elections and harms citizens by stealing the power of our votes,” Miller said in a statement quoted by PennLive. “Illegal voting is not a victimless crime but a serious affront to the principle of our democratic republic.”
The Justice Department noted in its release that the charges are accusations and that every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court. PennLive reported that officials did not say whom the defendants voted for.
Part of a wider crackdown
Votebeat reported that Friday’s cases bring the number of people charged with noncitizen-voting crimes in Pennsylvania to 20 since September, describing the charges as part of the Trump administration’s nationwide push on election crimes ahead of the midterms. PennLive reported that three people from Cumberland and Dauphin counties were charged with illegally voting last month.
Critics of the effort argue the problem is small. Votebeat, citing an analysis it conducted with Spotlight PA, reported that election officials contend noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare. Votebeat also reported that the Department of Homeland Security said in July it had identified roughly 14,576 potential noncitizens on Pennsylvania’s voter rolls, but has not yet shared that list with state officials.
That gap is exactly what supporters of the crackdown point to. According to the Justice Department’s charges, green card holders were able to cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election in Pennsylvania, one of the country’s most closely watched swing states, and the cases surfaced through a federal Homeland Security Investigations probe. As Miller put it, each illegal vote amounts to “stealing the power” of lawful voters’ ballots.
The Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported that the charges have not yet been proven and that the Justice Department announced them in a Friday press release. Attorneys for several of the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Votebeat.
Pennsylvania voters head to the polls on Nov. 3.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice: Nine Pennsylvania Non-Citizens Charged with Illegally Voting
- U.S. Department of Justice on X
- PennLive
- Votebeat
- Pennsylvania Capital-Star
Sources cited
Sources
- Original post: U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) on X, Oct 23, 2026
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