Two large states are now reporting significant numbers of noncitizens somehow became registered voters, showing yet again that the biggest problem with voter-integrity measures is not that they are too tough, but that they are too lenient.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that Secretary of State David Whitley had informed him that as many as 95,000 noncitizens were on Texas’ voter rolls, and that at least 58,000 of them actually had voted at least once. Even if the number turns out to be considerably less than that when counties investigate, it's far above zero.

On Jan. 30, reports emerged that at least 11,198 noncitizens similarly were on the voter rolls in Pennsylvania, and “top lawmakers suspect the number could still be higher.” This is just the first tranche of numbers from an investigation launched when a Philadelphia poll commissioner estimated that some 100,000 noncitizens could be registered, after discovering that a computer problem in the state’s motor vehicle bureaus allowed ineligible voters to register.

The Pennsylvania investigation was catalyzed by a voter-integrity group called the Public Interest Legal Foundation, which filed suit in both state and federal courts to try to force these problems to be addressed.

“State officials have been hiding how they blew it and allowed aliens onto voter rolls in Pennsylvania,” said J. Christian Adams, president and general counsel of PILF, an interview with the Washington Examiner. “It’s been going on for 20 years, and they need to release all of the records.”

Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative and a former member of the Federal Election Commission, agreed.

“This is just more evidence of the vulnerability of our current registration and election system and it refutes the constant claim by liberals and the mainstream media that there is no voter fraud in this country,” he told the Washington Examiner. “These 11,000 noncitizens represent a huge number of illegal voters who could (and may have) changed outcomes in close elections. We need assurance from Pennsylvania officials that not only have these noncitizens been removed from voter rolls, but that their files have been turned over to law enforcement for investigation and possible prosecution.”

PILF also has filed suit in Texas. For those many on the left who say voter fraud is virtually nonexistent, the Texas example refutes their claim. Paxton noted that his office had “obtained a number of successful noncitizen voter fraud convictions,” and he mentioned by name recent cases involving defendants named Rosa Ortega in Tarrant County, Laura Garza in Montgomery County, and Marites Curry in Navarro County.

This is serious stuff. Every vote cast illegally effectively negates a ballot cast for a different candidate by a legal voter. For those worried about “voter suppression,” this is the real suppression, and it ought to be countered by every legal means.