Musk falsely claims non-citizens can vote in New York City

New York City lawmakers adopted a law in 2022 allowing non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, but a state court struck down the provision before it went into effect. While litigation about the law is still ongoing, billionaire Elon Musk's claim that thousands of non-citizens were admitted to state voter rolls is incorrect -- only US citizens can currently vote in New York state and city elections.

"In New York State, illegal aliens can already vote in state and city elections. A lot of people don't know that," Musk said during a February 28, 2025 appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience," one of the most listened-to podcasts on Spotify.

"There's, I mean, they're trying to fight that, and they're trying to stop that, but it's, they're currently, I think it's like 600,000 are registered to vote, illegal aliens in New York."

The same claim spread elsewhere on X and other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. It also circulated on sites popular with conservatives, including Rumble and Gettr.

The claims of "aliens" voting in New York echo unfounded allegations about non-citizens and voter fraud that were pushed during the 2024 election season by conservative figures, including Musk and President Donald Trump.

Musk appeared to be referencing a January 2022 law the New York City Council adopted to allow some non-citizens who reside in the city -- permanent residents and individuals authorized to work in the United States -- to vote in municipal elections (archived here and here).

Some other local governments, including Washington and Burlington, Vermont, allow certain non-citizens to vote in local elections. But the move by America's largest city represented a significant expansion of voting rights for non-citizen residents.

However, the measure was blocked before it was due to go into effect.

These local laws also have no impact on federal elections, where non-citizens are barred from participating. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires all states to use a standardized form on which prospective voters in federal contests must attest under penalty of perjury that they are US citizens (archived here).

Law never took effect

The New York City law was scheduled to go into effect in December 2022 and begin applying to city elections one month later.

But six months after it was adopted, a Staten Island judge ruled that the law violated the New York constitution. An appellate court later upheld that ruling, meaning the measure never went into effect.

Kathleen McGrath, a spokesperson for the New York State Board of Elections, confirmed to AFP that because the law was struck down before it could take effect, non-citizens have not been able to register to vote in city or state elections.

"Unfortunately, there is much mis- and disinformation about elections and voting online. The best place to get accurate information is directly from boards of elections," she said in a March 14, 2025 email.

The courts ruled that Section 2, Article 1 of the state's constitution only entitles US citizens to vote in elections and that city governments are not empowered to change those rules for local races (archived here).

"Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people and upon all questions submitted to the vote of the people provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty days next preceding an election," the Article says.

The city council argued that the word "citizen" in the state constitution does not necessarily refer to US citizenship and could broadly refer to a resident of the state. However, both the lower and appellate courts disagreed (archived here and here).

"We determine that this local law was enacted in violation of the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law, and thus, must be declared null and void," appellate court Associate Justice Paul Wooten wrote in June 2023.

New York's high court heard arguments in a final attempt by city lawmakers to implement the law in February. It has not yet issued a ruling as of March 17, 2025, leaving non-citizens still unable to register to vote or cast ballots.

Musk, meanwhile, did not cite any evidence for his claim that 600,000 non-citizens were registered in New York.

Data from the Center for Migration Studies showed that about 672,000 people in New York state did not have legal immigration status in 2022 (archived here). Another 2023 report from the same think tank estimated that around 600,000 New York residents were eligible to become naturalized citizens but had not yet acquired the status (archived here).

Most estimates say that around 800,000 people would be newly eligible to vote if the state high court allows the law to take effect. This would include green card holders and other documented non-citizen residents in New York City, such as so-called "dreamers" who were brought into the country illegally by their parents and currently have protected status under federal law (archived here).

The law would only apply to city elections -- including those for mayor or city council -- and not state elections as Musk claimed.

AFP has debunked other claims about US politics here.