By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A top election official from the battleground state of Arizona warned the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that a Republican drive against noncitizen voting in the Nov. 5 election is aimed at a "fake problem" and could impose a hefty penalty on U.S. citizens.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told the Republican-led House of Representatives Administration Committee that 47,000 eligible voters in his state were denied the right to vote by a 2004 initiative that required proof of citizenship.
"We have denied eligible citizens the right to vote in far greater numbers than we would have prevented the vanishingly rare noncitizen voting that is alleged to be happening across the United States of America," said Fontes, a Democrat who was one of the top election officials from six states who testified at a hearing.
During a sometimes-combative session about public confidence in elections, lawmakers and witnesses traded jabs over a Biden administration drive to register new voters through federal agencies and the tide of misinformation about the voting system's integrity that witnesses blamed for unrelenting threats against election administrators.
"People have come to my home. They have threatened me or my staff and many of the hundreds of clerks and local election officials in our state," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, told lawmakers.
"Unsubstantiated allegations and rhetoric without evidence makes our elections less secure, because they erode the public's confidence," she said.
The hearing took place as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to force Democrats to accept a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections nationwide.
The measure is backed by Republican Donald Trump, who falsely claims that his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden resulted from widespread voter fraud and that the November election could be swayed by voting among migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Voting by noncitizens in federal elections is a felony, and independent studies have shown that it happens only rarely.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who acknowledged the rarity of the practice, said his office has removed nearly 600 noncitizens from state voter rolls that contain about 8 million registrants.
"But we keep it rare by enforcing the law," said LaRose, a Republican. "This problem has only been compounded by the lack of border security under the current administration."
Fontes said eligible voters affected by the Arizona measure known as Proposition 200 have since been allowed access to the ballot despite "the paranoia around a fake problem."
But he predicted more adverse effects for eligible citizens from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that revived proof of citizenship requirements for state elections.
"These efforts will result in the reduction of the capacity of some U.S. citizens from being able to vote," Fontes said.
Just before Johnson canceled a Wednesday vote on the Republican legislation requiring proof of U.S. citizenship in voting, Republican committee Chairman Bryan Steil said the measure is needed to prevent noncitizens from registering to vote while obtaining driver's licenses.
"Because noncitizens can receive drivers' licenses in every state, they inevitably also receive voter registration forms even though they cannot vote in federal elections," Steil said.
"As a result, we have seen states take steps to remove those noncitizens from their voter rolls."
Democracy advocates and Democrats view the measure as a Republican attempt to cast doubt on the November election.
"Our elections are secure," said Representative Joe Morelle, the panel's top Democrat. "Americans will not succumb to the torrent of mis- and disinformation."
At one point, each state election official - three Democrats and three Republicans - assured lawmakers that they practiced "zero tolerance" toward noncitizen voting.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
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