(b) Fraudulent voting: § 20511(2)(B)
Subsection 20511(2)(B) prohibits any person, in an election
for federal office, from defrauding or attempting to defraud the
residents of a state of a fair election through casting or tabulating ballots
that the offender knows are materially false or fraudulent under state
law. Unlike other ballot fraud laws discussed in this chapter, the
focus of this provision is not on any single type of fraud, but rather on
the result of the false information: that is, whether the ballot generated
through the false information was defective and void under state law.
Because of the conceptual breadth of this provision, it is a useful
alternative to other fraud statutes in reaching certain forms of election
corruption, particularly alien and felon voting.
However, the statute’s jurisdictional element, “in any election
for Federal office,” substantially restricts its usefulness for fraudulent
voting (as opposed to fraudulent registration) schemes, as it applies
only to elections that include a federal candidate. Thus, its scope is
similar to that of 52 U.S.C. §§ 10307(c) and (e), and arises from the
fact that fraudulent activity aimed at any race in a mixed election has
the potential to taint the integrity of the federal race.
8. Voting by Non-citizens
Federal law does not expressly require that persons be United
States citizens to vote. Moreover, eligibility to vote is a matter that
the Constitution leaves primarily to the states. 31 At the time this book
was written, however, all states required that prospective voters be
United States citizens.
Historically, the states have regulated both the administrative
and substantive facets of the election process, including how one
31
U.S. C ONST . art. I, § 2; id. amend. XVII (electors for Members of the United
States House of Representatives and the United States Senate have the qualifications
for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures); id. art. II, § 1, cl.
2 (presidential electors chosen as directed by state legislatures).
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