Fact-checkers drawn into heated debate over number of noncitizens who vote illegally

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Washington Times

A right-leaning fact-checker is fighting critics on the left who say its conclusion that a lot of noncitizens vote illegally is bunk.
The online battle of debunking and rebuttal is playing out as a much larger war has erupted between President Trump’s commission on election integrity and Democratic state leaders. They are refusing to provide the panel with public voter registration data. Left-wing groups are suing to stop the commission’s work, which could settle the noncitizen debate by collecting enough data.

In the fact-check standoff, there is Just Facts, a small New Jersey firm of conservative and libertarian scholars who promote what they say is solid independent research.

Just Facts President James D. Agresti issued a blockbuster report in June. Using previous research, polling data and Census Bureau figures, his team concluded that as few as 594,000 noncitizens or as many as 5.7 million voted in the 2008 presidential election. If accurate on the high side, it would vindicate Mr. Trump’s contention that a lot of illegal ballots were cast in his race for the White House last year with Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Challenging Mr. Agresti are fact-checkers PolitiFact and Snopes.com, which conservatives generally view as liberal; liberal college professors; and left-leaning news sites such as HuffPost.