The Noncitizen Voter Who Doesn't Exist

While everyone argues over Trump's noncitizen-voting claim, a little-known federal case documented something else: Russian and Uzbek nationals submitting fake voter registrations.

Mister X. Thunderbyrd. Ariel Elston. One was a fictitious voter. One was a test record. And all three raise a question nobody seems to be asking.

The real threat is not “noncitizen voters” — at least not the kind Trump is talking about.

Trump says his administration has found roughly 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote. His critics react: Show us the evidence.

And every time I hear that argument, I want to scream:

I HAVE EVIDENCE. WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LOOK AT IT?

Because I’ve spent years digging through actual voter records, and I’ve found something that doesn’t fit neatly into either side’s argument.

What if some of the “voters” aren’t citizens because they aren’t even real people?

In Texas, election officials told us Mister X was just a test record. But test records aren’t supposed to be in a live voter database. So why did Mister X appear in the official voter data we received for more than six months?

In Florida, Thunderbyrd appears in the state’s voter data without a last name. The federal voter-registration form has separate fields for last name, first name and middle name(s). So how exactly did Thunderbyrd get onto Florida’s voter rolls with no last name?

And Ariel Elston?

We don’t have to wonder about that one.

Federal prosecutors say Ariel Elston was a fictitious voter — one of the fake identities in a scheme in which a Russian national and an Uzbek national submitted 132 fraudulent voter-registration applications to a Florida elections office.

Pinellas County caught them and rejected the applications.

But that’s exactly the point: someone was actually creating fake people and attempting to register them to vote.

And these 132 fraudulent voter-registration applications were caught.

But how would we know if others weren’t?

Mister X and Thunderbyrd don't prove that happened elsewhere. They show why I think we should be looking. Ariel Elston proves the underlying method isn't hypothetical.

Because here’s where it gets even stranger: investigators found a photo in the Russian national's iCloud account of a woman identified as likely a Russian actress holding a Michigan driver's license in Ariel Elston's name — but with the actress's photo on it.

So, this isn't hypothetical. A Russian national and an Uzbek national really were creating fake identities and submitting voter-registration applications for them in an American election system.

And this wasn’t ancient history. The 132 fraudulent applications were submitted in 2023 — between the 2022 and 2024 federal elections. The Russian national pleaded guilty in 2025, and more than a year later, his sentencing still had not been completed as of July 2026.

Which brings me to the question I think we’re missing:

What if we’re looking for the wrong kind of “noncitizen voter”?

What if some of the registrations we’re looking for aren’t noncitizens at all — because they aren’t even real people?

I’m not saying this Florida case was connected to Trump or that these fake registrations were created to cast votes for him.

I’m asking a different question.

If we now know that people can create fictitious identities and attempt to insert them into voter-registration systems, why aren’t we looking for that vulnerability too?

Now remember what Special Counsel Jack Smith testified about the alleged conspiracy to violate Americans’ voting rights:

“Find” votes.
“Get rid of” votes.

Add. Subtract.

And Smith testified that the crimes his office investigated “were committed for [Trump’s] benefit.”

So, what if the real vulnerability is bad actors creating fake voters — voters that could potentially be “found” when they’re needed?

And what if, while everyone argues about Trump’s 278,000 alleged noncitizens, we’re overlooking something we already know is real?

Fake people can be used to submit voter-registration applications.

And Jack Smith’s case alleged a conspiracy against Americans’ right “to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.”

So maybe we should stop arguing about whether the evidence exists. While everyone else demands evidence for Trump's claim, maybe we should also look at the evidence already sitting in front of us.

Remember Foster Haugen?

If not, you should really meet him. 👻👇

IF YOU WANT TO HELP

Everything you just read came from work we’re doing with a very small team and limited resources.

But finding the evidence is only useful if we can do something with it before the midterms.

Your donations help us obtain and preserve voter data, build the technology needed to analyze it at scale, cover legal costs, get this evidence in front of the public, and put actionable data into the hands of organizers on the ground who can use it before Election Day.

We have the infrastructure. We have the data. Now we need the resources to scale it while there is still time.

If you believe this work matters, please consider helping us keep it going — and growing.

You can donate by heading to our website at https://ItsuptoUs.GrassrootsSpeak.com

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