On the November ballot in eight states will be constitutional amendments backed by Republican lawmakers that would allow only American citizens to vote in elections.
But this is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in those state and federal elections, which is rare.
Election experts warn that this is one way Republicans are trying to push unfounded narratives at the national and state levels. non-citizens vote in large numbers in a way that could affect the results of the elections in the background of the heated presidential race.
The effort, they say, could stoke people’s fears and play on their misconceptions about voting in US elections, thereby legitimizing the claims of former President Donald Trump and other Republicans about a problem that doesn’t exist at all.
“These proposed constitutional amendments are really aimed at two things: preventing local governments in those states from allowing non-US citizens to vote in local elections, and spreading this false narrative, completely unsupported by any evidence or fact, that non-US citizens vote in US elections en masse.” , said Jonathan Diaz, director of voting advocacy at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
GOP presidential candidate Trump has long argued that noncitizens vote in elections and Democrats helped them enter the country to issue these ballots. Republican National Committee election integrity campaignaims to recruit 100,000 poll watchers and lawyers for the upcoming electionsalso stressed that non-citizen voting could jeopardize this fall’s results.
Meanwhile, GOP officials in several states recently cleared the voter listsetc And House Speaker Mike Johnson aims to deport non-citizens prompted the legislation will require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.
In addition, Republican-controlled legislatures in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin have placed constitutional amendments on this year’s ballots that would expressly make it illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and local elections. . Supporters argue that the amendment serves as a tool to prevent any problems with voting.
No state constitution in the United States allows non-citizens to vote. While some cities and municipalities in three states, as well as Washington, D.C., allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections, none are located in the eight states with these ballot measures.
Proposed amendments in Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin would effectively change existing language in those states’ constitutions to state that “only” citizens can vote. citizen’ or ‘all citizens’ can do so.
Proposals in Idaho and Kentucky would add language to those states’ constitutions stating that “no person who is not a citizen of the United States” may vote.
In these eight states, legislators, not citizens, control the constitutional amendment process.
Lawmakers in those states trying to pass legislative proposals, as well as groups that support them, say their efforts are to further protect elections.
“We do this to protect your rights as a citizen. We’re doing it to protect your right to vote,” Republican Sen. Julian Bradley of Wisconsin said at a conference last week. press conference It was organized by Americans for Citizens for Votes, a nonprofit group that helps organize legislative efforts in eight states.
Bradley, who helped lead the legislative effort to put the measure on the ballot in Wisconsin, added that it seeks to “create another piece of concern that people have about who votes and how they vote.”
Republican Sen. Brad Overcash of North Carolina said the amendment simply “gives the power” to people in those eight states to “decide to amend their constitutions to allow citizens and only citizens to vote.”
Jack Tomczak, vice president of Americans for Citizen Voting, did not dispute that non-citizen voting — particularly in local elections in those eight states — is virtually non-existent, saying in an interview that the effort is “about vigilance.”
“We, and the legislators who sponsor these, are moving forward to solve a problem that maybe doesn’t raise its head very much in these states,” he said. “This is not the same everywhere and it must be stopped immediately. But giving up in advance is not a bad thing.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who worked with Americans for Citizens to Vote in support of the get-out-the-vote effort, added that the measures mark “another way to build trust in the election process.”
But voting rights experts point to such justifications as a clear admission that the measures are trying to address a widespread problem.
“They play on people’s fears and misconceptions about the electoral process and who participates in elections to raise this kind of anxiety about whether or not our elections can be trusted,” Diaz said. “Anyway, when a person sees something like this on their ballot, I think it would be a reasonable reaction to think, ‘Oh my God, were they allowed to vote before?’ Have we allowed non-US citizens to vote all this time?’ And of course we don’t have it – it’s already illegal.”
Bree Grossi Wilde, executive director of the nonpartisan State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, said the proposed amendments “give the false impression that noncitizens are currently voting.”
In Wisconsin’s case, he said, the ballot measure no longer mentions the phrase “citizen” in the state constitution as a reference to who is eligible to vote in Wisconsin. (Neither do the other seven measures).
More broadly, it could help fuel further doubts about the legitimacy of the electoral system that Trump and his allies continue to spread in the 2024 election.
“Whether it’s true or not, it’s not,” Diaz said of widespread noncitizen voting, adding that the existence of those ballots “risks creating doubt in the public mind and undermines the electoral system and perhaps makes it easier for the public to swallow attempts to overturn the results.” if [Trump] loses.”
Diaz and Grossi Wilde also wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the events — particularly in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and North Carolina — could serve to boost Republican turnout by drawing more attention to an issue important to the GOP base.
While Americans for Citizens Vote says it has no formal or informal ties to the Trump campaign or the RNC, its chairman, Paul Jacob, said at a recent news conference that he hopes the get-out-the-vote measures will help improve voter turnout.
“I see people talking about this as a voting issue and it has a negative connotation and it makes me wonder that we want people to get out and vote and the best way to get people to get out and vote is to get them to vote. it’s something they really want to vote on,” Jacob said. “So I want to cover part of it as a participation issue because it’s something voters care about.”