Republicans in the House of Representatives will vote Thursday on legislation banning non-citizens from voting in the nation’s capital, after it was revealed that up to 500 are on Washington, DC’s voter rolls.
‘If this voting bill does not pass, everyone must pay close attention. It will be proof positive: there are some Democrats who want illegal aliens to decide the election. It will be clear: they do not want Americans to decide the American elections,” Chairman Mike Johnson said at a press conference on Wednesday.
It is almost certain that the legislation will die in the Senate.
In a letter dated May 15, DC Board of Elections Chairman Gary Thompson announced that there are 489 non-citizen registered voters in the district.
The DC City Council changed its code in 2023 to allow voting by non-citizens. It went a step further than other jurisdictions by allowing not only non-citizens, but also those staying here illegally, to participate in local elections.
Under federal law, noncitizens are not allowed to vote in federal elections.
D.C. residents were already allowed to vote while in prison, along with imprisoned felons from Maine and Vermont.
House Republicans will vote Thursday on legislation banning noncitizens from voting in the nation’s capital after it was revealed that about 500 are on Washington, D.C.’s voter rolls.
Republicans questioned how election officials could distinguish between noncitizen voters and others and ensure that noncitizen voters would only receive a ballot for local elections.
“Our system will also easily generate a unique ballot for a non-citizen, excluding federal election attendance. This is a lot like ensuring that a vote for someone voting in the Republican primary does not include a Democratic election, and vice versa,” Thompson assured.
“You know, why would anyone be able to vote for the Russian embassy in an election here in the United States of America? Yet that is what is allowed today,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said at a news conference Wednesday.
“As Chinese citizens, they shouldn’t be able to vote in the American elections, for God’s sake.”
Foreign nationals can only vote in local elections if they renounce their right to vote in their home country.
Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, DC’s non-voting delegate in Congress, denounced the bill ahead of the vote: “DC laws are matters for the duly elected DC Council and Mayor, and not for unaccountable members of Congress who are not residents.” of DC represent. DC’s nearly 700,000 residents are worthy and capable of managing their own local affairs.”
Republicans in recent days have given more vociferous credence to the Great Replacement Theory — that Democrats are embracing illegal immigrants to weaken the voting power of American citizens and help them with the census.
“The Democrats here in Washington want illegal aliens in our country. Why? So they can become voters, and they can influence the outcome of the census and security to influence Congress’s redistricting,” Johnson said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The bills come as Republicans increase pressure on legislation to enforce restrictions on non-citizen voting at the federal level.
Federal law prohibits requiring documentary proof of citizenship in elections. Arizona needs it for state elections.
The SAVE Act, authored by Rep. Chip Roy and pressured by Johnson and former President Donald Trump, aims to force election officials to verify citizenship in elections. It is not yet clear when it will be voted on.
Johnson, speaking alongside Trump world heavyweights Stephen Miller and Hogan Gidley and Roy last week, did not provide a full breakdown of the number of non-citizens who voted in the election, but warned the number could be “dangerously high.”
‘We all know intuitively that many illegal immigrants vote in federal elections. But it’s not something that’s easy to prove. We don’t have that number. This legislation will allow us to do just that.”
Noncitizens who vote in federal and state elections already break the law and risk imprisonment or deportation. A small handful of municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont allow illegal immigrants to vote in local elections.
“If a nefarious actor wants to interfere in our elections, all he has to do is check a box on a form and sign his name. That is it. That’s all it takes,” Johnson said.
Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration policies, called the bill the “most important vote most members of Congress make in their entire careers.”
“If this bill does not become law, Joe Biden and the Democrats will have accomplished one of the greatest interferences in any democratic nation in the history of the world.”
The bill would aim to close all loopholes that allow people to register to vote without proof of U.S. citizenship or photo identification, require all fifty states to remove all illegal immigrants from their voter rolls, and impose penalties of up to five years impose prison sentences for election officials. which register non-citizens to vote and require proof of citizenship for those voting abroad.
There is little evidence that non-citizen voting affects election outcomes, and illegal immigrants often avoid providing personal information out of fear or because they will be caught by immigration authorities.
However, it is possible to vote illegally as an undocumented immigrant.
Most ballots require identification to register to vote, such as a driver’s license. Not all of these IDs require citizenship — the bill would specifically require identity requirements such as passports or birth certificates.
A sample of more than 1 billion ballots from 2002 to 2022 found fewer than 100 cases of voter fraud.