After recently becoming US citizens and registering to vote, Roselia Navarro of Wisconsin and Halley Ji-Zhang of North Carolina will vote for the first time this November.
They will share other similarities: Each will have a voice on the battlefield. They will each face state elections seeking to reiterate that only US citizens can vote in state and local elections. is already illegal non-citizens vote in these state as well as federal elections – and illegal voting is rare.
So are Navarro and Ji-Zhang More than 3.5 million citizens became citizens Those who have been eligible to vote since 2020. They join It has become more than 23 million citizens who were eligible to vote in the last presidential election.
In the swing states they live in, voters like Navarro and Ji-Zhang can be consistent. The number of immigrants who become US citizens and therefore eligible to register to vote has continued to grow in recent years. According to the American Immigration Councila legal non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of immigrants.
Although overall turnout among naturalized voters was lower than that of US-born voters, naturalized Latino and Asian American voters had higher turnout rates than US-born voters. According to Pew Research.
“Now that I have citizenship, I feel like I’m more involved in the election because my opinion matters now,” said Navarro, 32, who was naturalized in April 2023 after a year of studying for the U.S. citizenship test.
Navarro, who was born in Mexico, said it made her “very happy” to be the first in her family to vote in the United States, where she has called home for nearly two decades and is now raising two young daughters, who are also American citizens. .
For Ji-Zhang, 22, a Chinese immigrant who became a US citizen last month, casting a ballot for the first time this November is especially important. He described the powerlessness he felt in 2020 the rise of anti-Asian hatred Covering the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When I got my citizenship, I checked the calendar to make sure I did it as soon as possible because I really didn’t want to risk missing this election,” she said.
But worries over what should be a significant milestone for Navarro and Ji-Zhang are marred. ballot measures were much debated seeks to amend the suffrage language in both the Wisconsin and North Carolina constitutions to make it more clear that noncitizens do not have the right to vote.
Changing the selector language
Although the amendments do not change existing voting laws, supporters of the measuresMainly supported by Republican-controlled legislatures in both states, it believes in more openly excluding non-citizens from the electoral process.
Opponents of the proposals, Democrats includeddeem the amendments redundant and unnecessary. Critics He worries about the potential chilling effect the ballot measures will have on citizens who actually have the right to vote — claims the proposal is designed to fuel. fake news about non-citizens voting in large numbers and undermined people’s confidence in the election.
In addition to electing the president and other government officials, Wisconsinites will vote change the voting rights language in your state constitution. The measure proposes to replace the phrase “every” with “only” in the constitution, which is currently “Any United States citizen 18 years of age or olderEligible to vote in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Republican state Sen. Julian Bradley, who worked to approve the proposal in the Legislature, argued that if his state’s constitution were to remain unchanged, it would leave a door open for local governments to pass laws allowing noncitizens to vote in the city and state. municipal elections in the future.
Although no state constitution in the United States currently allows noncitizens to vote, some cities and municipalities do in three statesand Washington DC has allowed non-citizens to vote in some local elections. None of these are located in Wisconsin or North Carolina.
A spokesman for Bradley’s office did not respond to a request for comment. However, at a press conference hosted last month Americans for a Citizen Vote“We just want to make sure that American citizens vote,” said the senator, a nonprofit group that has led legislative efforts in favor of ballot measures.
Unbiased review State Democracy Research Initiative The University of Wisconsin Law School concluded that the Wisconsin ballot measure “will not have an immediate practical effect on voting rights,” because current law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal and state elections.
Navarro said he noticed the question on the ballot was incorrect. The prospect of facing this question at the ballot box as a first-time voter who has “worked really hard to earn this right” makes me a little nervous and saddened.
Nancy Flores, Associate Director National Partnership for New Americanssaid that “instead of being welcomed into the democratic process, if you weren’t born in this country, you feel like it’s a wrong thing to participate. That’s a really bad message to send to somebody.”
Avi McCullough, president of Americans for Citizen Voting, defended the proposals, saying they were talking about protecting their right to vote and “it’s not about being anti-national or anti-foreigner.“
North Carolinians will vote on similar changes to their state constitution.
Republican state Sen. Brad Overcash, who led efforts to introduce the measure in North Carolina, believes that changing the voter rights language in his state’s constitution is still the most effective way to ensure that no future laws are passed that allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. and local elections in North Carolina, according to a spokeswoman for his office.
The North Carolina Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union “the amendment is unnecessary and will not change the law,“Citizens have the right to vote and will protect that right even if this constitutional amendment passes.”
ACLU of North Carolina and 30 organizations in Wisconsin voters are urged to vote “no” on the measure.reject the fear-mongering and hateful rhetoric fueling this election event.”
‘It never crossed my mind’
As a result of the Brennan Center’s research on the 2016 elections, it was found that of 23.5 million votes were cast, election officials found only about 30 cases of potential non-citizen voting. Information from a public policy research organization Cato Institute and a conservative think tank Heritage Foundation also shows that the incidence of noncitizens voting illegally in the United States has been negligible in subsequent elections.
During the entire election cycle Republican leaders in several states have proposed issues.rigged elections” and non-citizen voting as part of a larger political strategy to make it more common than it actually is electoral integrity is the cornerstone of their campaign messaging.
One in 10 eligible voters in the United States are naturalized citizens, most of whom are Hispanic or Asian American. According to the Pew Research Center. They make up about 10% of the US electorate. The top countries of origin for US naturalized citizens are Mexico, India and China.
“The idea of voting illegally never even crossed my mind,” Ji-Zhang said, adding that no immigrant would intentionally do anything to jeopardize their naturalization process.
For North Carolina resident Saiesh Srivastava, a 21-year-old Indian immigrant who became a naturalized citizen last February, being able to vote for the first time makes him feel part of a “larger movement of people excited to go to the polls.”
After being involved in activism, including taking part in racial justice protests, but unable to help make an electoral decision in the country he has called home since childhood, Srivastava said voting for the first time was an important next step.