Democrats should agree with this, and amend the bill to indicate that all citizens should have the right to vote (ideally with it being a felony to try to prevent them from doing so). Let Trump and Johnson explain why they don’t want that part of it.
I think a lot of people are missing the next step of the plan. First, they push a bill that specifically says it is illegal for non citizens to vote. Assume the bill passes, because why wouldn’t it? You already have to be a citizen to vote. It’s all political theater, after all, so there is no need to pick a fight.
Then red states come through with a fucked up interpretation of the law that says felons are no longer U.S. citizens. Now it is illegal for felons to ever vote again. The law would be challenged, appealed, and eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, that is absolutely going to side with the “States right” to choose what happens to their felons.
Finally, they use selective enforcement of law combined with aggregate data from any number of sources to build felony cases specifically against political rivals. Then you have red states that can never go blue again.
This is all fascism 101.
It’s impossible to denaturalize a natural-born citizen. This is explicitly protected in the 14th amendment.
The only laws allowing for stripping a person’s citizenship applies to those who became a citizen. Most commonly, because that citizenship was obtained illegally or through fraud.
Other things that can trigger it include being a member of a terrorist group (“subversive”), failing to testify before congress, or a dishonorable discharge if your service included a path to citizenship.
Non-american here so wondering, can literally anyone in the US walk into a voting booth and cast a vote? If so… Why would you allow that? And why would you not want to prevent it?
There are voter rolls that each state maintains of eligible voters. These rolls have to conform to minimum guidelines, like allowing all US citizens without felonies 18 years or older to vote. However, the federal government doesn’t have any never had any maximum guidelines.
If a state decided that all 16 year old citizens could vote, the Federal Government couldn’t do anything. Same with how different states address allowing felons who have served their time the ability to vote. In theory, this could include allowing non-citizens the opportunity as well.
This was built into the Constitution as an option. All elections, including for President, have some mechanism in place so that it doesn’t matter if a state has a lesser or greater percentage of its residents vote over other states. After all, the Constitution was written in mind where several states would have significant slave populations.
It is unknown if a federal maximum guideline would be constitutional, since it really messes with the division of powers between the states and the federal government.
No, trump is just a fucking chode. This is theater for the brain dead Fox News masses to wave flags about.
And apparently since 2001, there have been fewer than 100 cases (I think somewhere in the area of 50-60 cases) where a non-citizen attempted to vote.
Less than 100 cases. In over 20 years.
It’s an obvious, bald-faced smokescreen, covering their plans to rig the election or commit a coup should they lose.
Citizens only for Federal and State elections. Some local elections allow non-citizens. Very few. Not something that needs Federal legislation.
As others pointed out, it’s political theater because that’s all they have.
Sooooo Amir, who is here on a work visa, loses his vote on where to go for the team lunch? Sorry, Chipotle, it is.
I don’t have to present any ID in order to vote. Since I am already on the voting rolls, all I do is show up at the poll, tell them who I am, and they find my name in the (now electronic) book. I sign it and then I can go vote.
Now, when I initially registered, I had to prove I was eligible. Most voter registration is done here in conjunction with getting your driver’s license (or other non-driver state ID). Since you have to produce your birth certificate and/or naturalization papers, they can check your eligibility right there.
A lot of the misinformation from the Right stems from how closely the DMV is tied into voter registration. Non-citizens can drive, of course, and some states even give licenses to people here illegally. Republicans assume all these people get signed up to vote, also, but they do not. Only people who can prove their eligibility get registered.
Voting in person in the US usually involves a checkin process where an election worker looks up your name and address to 1. Confirm you are registered to vote, 2. Confirm you are in the correct location to vote, and 3. Confirm that you haven’t already voted.
After voting you follow a similar process to check out, so they have a record that you checked in, voted, and checked out.
Point 2 is because in larger towns & cities there are often multiple voting locations, and voting locations are based on where in the town you live. For example in my city I vote at a church two blocks away from my home. If I tried to vote at a different location in my city they wouldn’t allow it, and would tell me to go to that church. (I think I could cast a provisional ballot at an alternate location if I provided sufficient ID, but that vote would only be counted after the election ended and records showed I didn’t vote at my usual location.)
the only place that i know of that lets non-citizens vote in NYC, and only for local elections.
their reasoning is that, if you live in NYC, you’re paying taxes and, therefore, have the right to representation. you still have to register and show ID, using the city’s NYC ID, which is issued for free (gasp!). (more info on NYC ID)
edit: my bad-- this law was ruled unconstitutional on appeal, after a long court battle, on 2/24/2024. boo
Eh, I get it in theory but voting should be an incentive to naturalization.
It still is. It was only limited to local elections.
Besides, taxation without representation is unjust and was one of the bases for the American Revolution itself. Hard to argue against it.
“We should make things hard and unjust so immigrants are pressured to become citizens,” is a pretty terrible argument, not to mention needlessly cruel.
Besides, taxation without representation is unjust and was one of the bases for the American Revolution itself. Hard to argue against it.
In general I agree but if I fly into another country and buy something (paying sales tax) I don’t expect to be able to immediately vote in their elections. Waiting a few years to be able to vote (when the rest of us have to wait 18 years) seems reasonable. Not to mention foreign adversaries would jump at the chance to ship in thousands of loyalists and have a real influence on an election.
“We should make things hard and unjust so immigrants are pressured to become citizens,” is a pretty terrible argument, not to mention needlessly cruel.
Hard? If having a vote suddenly makes things easy I’ve been doing voting wrong my whole life. And the naturalization process is cruel, but let’s fix that. If you’re productive and have a clean record you shouldn’t have to wait more than a year.
It is important to note that the law was determined to be unconstitutional to the NY State Constitution. This hasn’t been tested if a state allowed non-citizens to vote.
