Somewhere between 38,000 and 2.8 million non-citizens voted in the 2008 election, experts, election experts at Old Dominion concluded in a 2014 study.
"We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections," co-author Jesse Richman wrote.
Based on those findings, the same experts found that more than 800,000 non-citizens voted in the 2016 election, Richman told the conservative site The Daily Signal.
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday claimed in a tweet that he would have won the popular vote if not for the "millions of people who voted illegally."
With Hillary Clinton currently leading the popular vote by 2.2 million, 834,318 non-citizens doesn't quite get Trump to that claim, Richman told The Daily Signal.
"Extrapolating on data from several years ago certainly doesn't substantiate the claim that Trump is making now," Richman, an associate professor of political science at Old Dominion University, told The Daily Signal.
With Michigan just called in his favor, Trump won the electoral vote 306 to 232. But the slim margins of victory in the traditional blue states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have spurred calls for a recount by Green Party candidate Jill Stein.
"If there is a recount in Michigan and Trump loses by a few votes, then it's very plausible that non-citizen voting made a big difference. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that," Richman told the Signal.
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