A man living in Arkansas has been charged with voting as a noncitizen, after federal officials say he registered to vote in 2022 and cast a ballot in that year's general election despite his immigration status. The case surfaced this week as part of a broader Justice Department action targeting dozens of people across the country.
The man was identified as Mexican national Juan Manuel Gudino, described by officials as a lawful permanent resident, according to KARK. Gudino was charged with voting by an alien, the station reported, citing DOJ officials who said he allegedly registered to vote in 2022 and voted in that year's general election. The allegations stem from a Nov. 2 Justice Department news release that listed a man in the agency's Eastern District of Arkansas.
KARK first reported the Arkansas case on Nov. 2, 2026. A Nov. 3 story from The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette connected the Arkansas man to the Justice Department's nationwide list.
Nationwide Numbers Described Differently by Officials and Local Media
The scale of the federal action is described in conflicting terms. The Justice Department's own announcement characterized the action as charges involving 63 individuals, including four people described as illegal aliens, in connection with illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration and related election crimes across the country, according to the Justice Department. KARK, however, described the same nationwide action as 63 arrests for election-related crimes. The two outlets differ on whether the figure represents formal charging documents or actual arrests, and the available reporting does not clarify whether those terms refer to precisely the same group of cases.
Part of a Larger Federal Push on Noncitizen Voting
The Arkansas case fits into a much larger pattern of federal enforcement activity around noncitizen voting. Aristegui Noticias reported that the United States had charged 195 foreign nationals across 25 states over the preceding nine weeks for offenses tied to illegal voting and voter registration. The Justice Department had brought charges against 239 people total for election-fraud-related offenses during President Trump's second term.
Despite the volume of federal charges, the underlying problem appears statistically rare: a Brennan Center estimate put alleged noncitizen votes at just 0.0001% of the 23.5 million votes cast across 42 surveyed jurisdictions in the 2016 election.
Arkansas's Own Search Turned Up Few Cases
Arkansas officials have been running their own hunt for noncitizen voters for months, with limited results. An earlier report from the Democrat-Gazette found that election officials' monthslong search for noncitizens voting illegally in Arkansas yielded few cases. That effort included a news conference held by Attorney General Tim Griffin and Secretary of State Cole Jester in Little Rock on Oct. 2, 2025, regarding three illegal voters, held at the Bob R. Brooks Jr. Justice Building, according to the same Democrat-Gazette reporting.
No information has been made available about Gudino's response to the charge, legal representation, or how the case will proceed through the courts. The allegation that he registered and voted in 2022 remains, at this stage, a charge rather than a proven fact.
