It’s time voting be constitutionally limited to US citizens
Next year is the
100th anniversary of womens’ suffrage. My great-grandmother, Esther Kitty McBride, a daughter of Irish famine immigrants, was one of those proud Suffragettes. She would be shocked by the growing efforts to dilute the voting rights she and so many women fought for.
As increasingly progressive ideas dominate the Democratic primary, from reparations to descendants of slaves, to increasing the size of the US Supreme Court, perhaps none is more insidious than the idea of giving precious, hard-fought voting rights to non-citizens.
There is controversy about the extent to which non-citizens are already voting illegally. Most consider this to be a problem, particularly in states that both issue driver licenses to noncitizens and automatically register everyone with a driver license to vote.
Progressives have a solution to non-citizens illegally voting: legalize it — problem solved! In fact, progressives call noncitizen voting “the newest civil right.”
This is actually happening. In Sen. Kamala Harris’ home state of California, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont, former Rep. John Delaney’s Maryland, and former President Barack Obama’s Illinois, there are cities that currently allow non-citizens to legally vote. In Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Massachusetts and Sen. Kristen Gillibrand’s New York, city council leaders are leading the charge to give noncitizens voting rights in Boston and New York City. In fact, San Francisco spent $300,000 of taxpayer money last year to encourage non-citizens to register to vote.
How is this possible? Surprisingly, the U.S. Constitution and every state constitution, with the exception of Arizona and North Dakota, does not specifically require citizenship to vote. Each of these state constitutions say nearly the same thing: “Every citizen shall be an elector…”
This inclusive language tells us who can vote, but not who can’t vote. That’s why we need the Citizen Voters Amendment.
The Citizen Voters Constitutional Amendment strikes the words “Every Citizen …” and inserts the words “Only a Citizen…” so the state constitution will say, “Only a Citizen shall be an elector…”
That’s the entire amendment, just three words.
North Dakota overwhelmingly passed their North Dakota Citizen Voters Amendment at last November’s election with 66 percent support. The Alabama Legislature last month referred their Alabama Citizen Voters amendment to its November 2020 ballot.
Over 1.5 million people in Florida have signed the Florida Citizen Voters initiative petition to place the measure on its 2020 general election ballot, surpassing every other initiative petition in Florida’s history.
We anticipate other states will follow Florida’s example. Citizen initiatives are underway now in Colorado, Missouri and Michigan. Legislative referrals will be announced in a halfdozen states in the fall with the goal of placing the Citizen Voters Amendment on the 2020 ballot in at least a dozen states.
It’s time voting in the United States should be constitutionally limited to citizens of the United States.