A sizeable number of Democrats have downplayed concerns over non-citizens voting, while more states find thousands of them registered to vote ahead of the November presidential election.
As Republicans have attempted to pass a bill through Congress ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in federal elections, Democrats have pushed back, claiming that non-citizens are already prohibited from voting in U.S. elections. However, states have continued to find non-citizens on their voter rolls, and some who may have have voted in federal elections, after being registered to vote through the motor vehicles department.
While non-citizens are prohibited from voting in federal, state, and most local elections, municipalities in California, Maryland, and Vermont, and Washington, D.C., allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
Thousands of non-citizen voters have been discovered on voter rolls this year. Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Ohio have all included language in their state constitutions that prohibits non-citizen voting.
Meanwhile, Iowa, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin all have constitutional amendment ballot measures for voters to decide in the November general election whether non-citizens should be prohibited from voting in state elections.
In July, the House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) – also called the “motor voter” law – to make states require documentation of a person’s citizenship before registering to vote in federal elections and ensure states to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls.
Only five House Democrats voted in favor of the bill. The bill has sat in the Senate since July, without a referral to any committees.
House Republicans attempted to pass the SAVE Act again last week with a continuing resolution to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, but it failed with 14 Republicans voting against it. The SAVE Act was attached to the continuing resolution to help ensure its passage in the Senate.
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