Secretary of State Diego Morales speaks at a Sept. 12, 2025 press conference at the Indiana Statehouse. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
The Indiana Secretary of State’s Office said Friday that a Vigo County man is being investigated for allegedly voting without being a U.S. citizen. According to Secretary of State Diego Morales, the man —who has a Mexican passport — registered with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in 2018 and voted in six separate elections.
However, no charges have been filed and the office couldn’t release a name. Morales praised a recent law that added additional citizenship verification for certain voters, which he said allows election officials to scrutinize voter rolls.
“This case in Vigo County is proof that hard work is paying off; it is proof that noncitizens have voted in Indiana; and it is proof that our legislation is necessary and effective,” Morales said.
Under House Enrolled Act 1264, voters with registrations tied to temporary identification credentials from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles must meet additional proof of citizenship requirements, which includes an appeals process.
Following the law, which was enacted in July, the BMV sent names with temporary credentials to the state’s election division. In a comparison with the state’s registered voters, the election division identified 1,611 names in 91 counties that needed to provide additional information.
Those counties then had the responsibility to follow-up. Once notified by the county, registered voters had 30 days to verify their citizenship. Morales’ team said they hadn’t heard from counties about the other 1,610 names submitted for additional verification and couldn’t confirm if any others had been checked. “A few” names had their citizenship verified directly by the office.
Kegan Prentice, the Secretary of State’s legislative policy director, speaks a press conference on Sept. 12, 2025 at the Indiana Statehouse. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Upon receiving his notice from Vigo County, the man apparently responded by providing his Mexican passport and verbally confirmed that he wasn’t a citizen, according to the office’s legislative policy director, Kegan Prentice.
Prentice said providing the Mexican passport was “obvious” proof of the man’s non-American citizenship, though it is possible to have dual citizenship.
“… usually, at minimum, if they’re going to respond to this notice they’re not going to respond with proof of citizenship from another country,” Prentice said.
Vigo County referred the case to local law enforcement, who turned it over to the Indiana State Police.
Morales said his office has additionally notified the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI.
“Some critics said that these measures were not necessary; that noncitizens were not voting in Indiana,” said Morales. “… we are even facing a potential lawsuit over these requirements. But we now have concrete evidence that this is happening in Indiana.”
Additional context
With the 2024 law, voting rights advocates worried that a naturalized citizen might miss the county’s letter about providing additional proof of citizenship and lose their voter registration. In April, several voting rights groups sent a “notice of violation” alleging that the new law runs afoul of the National Voter Registration Act.
Prentice rebuffed that criticism.
“Just because the registration is canceled, does not mean that individual can’t vote. There are plenty of failsafe mechanisms in Indiana. Individuals can always cast provisional ballots,” Prentice said.
Morales, a naturalized citizen who was born in Guatemala, said he would be “more than happy” to share his naturalization documents if he’d been flagged for additional scrutiny.
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“I don’t think that this is a barrier. I think that we’re talking about transparency and I would have no problem — and I know many other naturalized citizens who would not have that problem — to show their proof of citizenship,” Morales said.
Groups of individuals who may have driver’s licenses, but aren’t citizens, include immigrants granted temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy or Ukrainian refugees.
Morales pointed to a similar effort to check citizenship in Iowa that identified 2,186 individuals. Of those, 277 were found to be noncitizens and 35 voted in 2024 elections. Of those, six have been charged as of June.
“That is why I’m thinking that this is the first case,” Morales said.
Morales also said the state had complied with an expansive DOJ data collection effort, providing names, addresses, driver’s licenses and partial Social Security numbers of registered Hoosier voters to federal authorities.
“If providing the Justice Department information can help Indiana with ensuring our voter list is accurate and up-to-date, we will do so. We will take all the help we can get,” Morales said. “I am proud to work with President (Donald) Trump and his administration to strengthen election integrity.”
Jerry Bonnet, the office’s chief legal counsel, said the Attorney General’s Office advised them that they were “required to provide that information.”
Other states found otherwise and have declined to share their voter lists. On Friday, Stateline reported that the DOJ is sharing that information with the Department of Homeland Security to identify noncitizens.
Morales vowed to continue his work to tamp down on noncitizen voting, which is rare.
“My biggest accomplishment so far as secretary of state is requesting proof of citizenship, and I’m always going to be working with President Trump and his administration and our general assembly here to make sure that only U.S. citizens are able to vote in Indiana,” he said.
In 2024, Indiana had 4.8 million registered voters and just under 3 million, or 62%, voted in that year’s general election. The Hoosier state has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country.
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