Elon Musk helped publicize a claim that “illegals” are registering to vote in several U.S. states on Tuesday. But, like so many of Musk’s tweets on X recently, the billionaire’s fearmongering crumbles under the smallest amount of scrutiny. And in this case, the state of Texas is calling bullshit.
“The number of voters registering without a photo ID is SKYROCKETING in 3 key swing states: Arizona, Texas, and Pennsylvania,” the account End Wokeness tweeted on Tuesday.
The account claimed that Texas added 1,250,710 new voters through the program, Pennsylvania added 580,513, and Arizona added 220,731. But that simply isn’t true, at least according to Texas state officials.
The End Wokeness account added that Help America Vote Verification (HAVV), a program that helps verify voter identification through central databases, “allows voters to register with a Social Security Number (4 digits),” falsely claiming that, “Illegals are not able to get licenses there. But they can get Social Security Cards (for work authorization permits).”
Musk helped give the tweet more visibility, adding “extremely concerning,” to a quote-tweet of the false claim. But Texas is disputing the claim.
“It is totally inaccurate that 1.2 million voters have registered to vote in Texas without a photo ID this year,” Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said in a statement published online on Wednesday. “The truth is our voter rolls have increased by 57,711 voters since the beginning of 2024. This is less than the number of people registered in the same timeframe in 2022 (about 65,000) and in 2020 (about 104,000).”
“When Texans register to vote, they must provide a driver’s license number or a Social Security number. When an individual registers to vote with just a SSN, the state verifies that the SSN is authentic,” Nelson continued.
Nelson also noted the various safeguards in place to make sure only eligible voters are casting a ballot, while also explaining that information about the number of times states have asked to verify a social security number might be incorrect on the federal program’s website.
“While federal law
Courtney Milan writes books about carriages, corsets, and smartwatches. Her books have received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist. She is a New York Times and a USA Today Bestseller.
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Before she started writing romance, Courtney got a graduate degree in theoretical physical chemistry from UC Berkeley. After that, just to shake things up, she went to law school at the University of Michigan and graduated summa cum laude. Then she did a handful of clerkships. She was a law professor for a while. She now writes full-time.
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