Project CIVICA Report Finds 10,680 Non-Citizen Indicators on New York Voter Rolls — Including 88 Records with Recent Voting History

WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. - Aug. 25, 2026 - PRLog -- By Project CIVICA, Inc.

Project CIVICA today released Open Doors: Unauthorized Entry of Non-Citizens onto New York's Voter Rolls.  Analysis of data provided by 14 New York counties (≈10% of the state's population) identified approximately 10,680 records carrying non-citizen indicators. Of these, 88 unique records show voting history, some as recently as the 2024 and 2025 election cycles.

KEY FINDINGS:

• 463 records contained a county-applied non-citizen reason code; 34 had voting history.
• 10,248 records contained an "N" in the citizenship field; 57 had voting history.
• 96.3% of records with a registration-source code were coded through DMVI.
• Thousands of "N" applications were still transmitted from the DMV into the voter system.

Under New York Election Law and regulations (9 NYCRR § 6217.5 and Part 6223), an application that does not affirm U.S. citizenship is incomplete and should never be transmitted, receive an SBOEID, or become a voter record. When counties later cancelled these registrations, NYSVoter most often coded the reason as "Duplicate" rather than non-citizenship, systematically obscuring the actual reason for removal. New York has no standardized statewide non-citizen cancellation code.

"The report documents a systemic breakdown," said Kim Hermance, President and Co-Director of Project CIVICA. "Thousands of applications that did not affirm U.S. citizenship were still transmitted through the DMV. Some of those individuals voted. The statewide database then obscured the true reason the registrations were cancelled. These findings raise serious questions about whether New York's voter-registration system is functioning as the law requires."

New Yorkers deserve better. New York must keep ineligible applications off the voter rolls, accurately document registration decisions, and maintain a transparent, auditable system. These failures undermine public confidence and may put non-citizens at risk for errors they did not create.

The 14 counties that returned data with non-citizen indicators represent only a fraction of New York and exclude New York City and the largest suburban counties. Project CIVICA is continuing its statewide review.

READ: [Executive Summary] [Full Report]

ABOUT PROJECT CIVICA

Project CIVICA is a New York-focused 501(c)(4) civic engagement and research organization focused on public transparency, election administration integrity, and citizen oversight of government processes. All Project CIVICA work is conducted by volunteers.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kim Hermance  |  President and Co-Director  |  Project CIVICA, Inc.
info@ProjectCIVICA.org  |  716-309-5062  |  ProjectCIVICA.org