Did Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson say that noncitizens would be allowed to vote in the 2024 elections? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that Nelson opened voting to non-U.S. citizens. In an October 2024 election advisory, the Secretary of State's Office clarified that naturalized citizens already on the voting rolls could use a limited-term driver's license or ID card -- issued to noncitizens -- as identification to vote since they had already completed the full voter registration process as citizens.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on October 9, 2024, under the on-screen title "Texas Noncitizen Voting Issue." The post's caption said:
The Texas Secretary of State's announcement that illegal aliens will be allowed to vote in the 2024 election is now trending at the top of X. The corrupt power structure is now in complete panic mode because they know the people have awakened to their crimes!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 10 15:31:47 2024 UTC)
The post provides no evidence to support its claim that the Texas secretary of state will intentionally let noncitizens vote in the 2024 elections.
Election advisory
The social media post is a misinterpretation of Election Advisory No. 2024-30 (archived here), which was issued on October 8, 2024, by Texas Director of Elections Christina Worrell Adkins, who works in Nelson's office. The advisory provides guidance to election officials on how to handle situations where a legally registered voter presents a "temporary or limited-term" driver's license or ID card, which is issued to individuals who are not U.S. citizens.
The Texas Department of Public Safety website (archived here) says this about the driver licenses and ID cards for temporary visitors:
A temporary visitor is anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, refugee or asylee.
Temporary visitors who meet the requirements will be issued a driver license or ID card with 'Limited Term' printed on it. The driver license or ID card will expire when the period of lawful presence expires. If the period of lawful presence is 'duration of status' then the driver license or ID card will expire in one year.
Such a situation could arise if a person becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen, a process where citizenship is granted to a permanent resident after meeting the requirements under U.S. law, but hasn't yet updated their limited-term license or ID card ahead of an election. The advisory lays out the situation for election officials this way:
If an individual who appears on the list of registered voters possesses a limited-term driver's license or identification card but also possesses another acceptable form of photo identification under Section 63.0101(a) of the Texas Election Code ('List A'), it is recommended that the individual present the other form of photo identification because the limited-term driver's license or identification card necessarily denotes that the person was not a United States citizen at the time of its issuance.
Texas accepts seven forms of photo ID for voting:
- Texas Driver License issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
- Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
- Texas Personal Identification Card issued by DPS
- Texas Handgun License issued by DPS
- United States Military Identification Card containing the person's photograph
- United States Citizenship Certificate containing the person's photograph
- United States Passport (book or card)
The advisory spells out additional steps polling officials should take, including telling the potential voter the requirements for voting in Texas (archived here) if they don't have an acceptable form of ID.
Having gone through the suggested steps, the advisory offers this guidance to election officials for registered voters who have a limited-term driver's license or ID card:
If the individual does not have further questions or concerns and wishes to proceed to vote, the individual should be offered a regular ballot. Please note that it is possible the individual became a naturalized United States citizen after the limited-term license or identification card was issued and has not updated his or her Texas driver's license or identification card since becoming naturalized.
To have become a registered voter in the first place, a person would already have had to provide proof of their U.S. citizenship, which is why this procedure by the secretary of state's office isn't a free pass to allow noncitizens to vote.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about elections are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims about immigrants are here.
