After a campaign season full of baseless claims about non-citizens voting in large numbers, fake videos purporting to show evidence for the claim began surfacing on social media.

It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal races and previous studies and audits show that this happens very rarely. However, former President Donald Trump and Republican leaders have made it a key talking point and have repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Democrats are bringing in migrants to vote illegally.

A NPR/PBS News/Marist The poll released last month found that 81 percent of Republicans are concerned about noncitizens voting in this election.

Fake videos used as alleged evidence to support the claim spread online last week, including a video about X that federal authorities attributed to a Russian disinformation campaign.

Given the rhetoric, some voting rights advocates and election officials have said they worry about the potential for harassment of naturalized citizens and non-English-speaking voters at the polls.

“I’m concerned with all this fervor and talking about it, that legitimate voters who just want their voices to be heard are going to be turned away from the process, afraid to come in, they’re going to have a very unpleasant experience just because of the rhetoric,” Joseph Kirk , who presides over elections in Bartow County, Georgia, NPR said last month.

As of late last week, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Act, which runs a national nonpartisan election protection hotlinehad not heard of such incidents, according to staff attorney Ryan Snow. Neither does Luis Acosta at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, who heads a bilingual Spanish-English hotline.

Snow said if anyone experiences voter intimidation or harassment, or has questions about the voting process, they should call an election protection hotline.

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