Posted on 07/08/2015 5:46:05 PM PDT by markomalley
District of Columbia council members voiced their support Wednesday for a new law that would allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
“These are residents who are well on their paths to citizenship,” Councilman David Grosso said. “Unfortunately not all of our residents have a say in the politicians who are elected to represent them.”
The bill would allow permanent residents in the city who are not American citizens to vote in elections for mayor, city council, the attorney general and State Board of Education members, among other things.
“They are our neighbors and our friends and they want to see our city flourish, yet they have no say in how the city’s government is run,” said Councilwoman Elissa Silverman.
Silverman went on to say that nearly one in eight D.C. citizens are immigrants, but only about 30 percent of them are American citizens, and that “all long-term residents of a city should have a right to have a choice in who represents them.”
“This speaks to the fundamental fairness and justice of our democracy, and in particular our local democracy,” Councilman Charles Allen added.
Under the current law, a person needs to be a citizen of the United States.
One opponent is Dorothy Brizill, executive director of DCWatch– a government watchdog group in the district. Brizill said that those who fought for years to get the right to vote civil rights movement are resentful, since they were already American citizens and still had to fight.
“For many the right to vote is the essence of citizenship,” she said as she warned the council not to move too hastily to pass the legislation.
Brizill brought up the difficulties that arise when non-citizens are given the right to vote, which would require two separate voter registration rolls for citizens and non-citizens.
“Would there be confusion at the polls?” Brizill asked of the council. “We’ve already seen confusion at the past.”
If the law passes, the city’s Board of Elections would need to decide between holding an election every year or providing separate ballots for non-citizens.
If the city decides to hold an election every year, local elections and national elections would alternate each year, so immigrants and citizens can vote in local elections one year, and only citizens would be eligible to vote in national elections the next.
Clifford Tatum, director of the Board of Elections, told council members if the city decides to hold both elections the same year, the ballots for immigrants would need to look significantly different from the regular ballots so the two would not be confused.
Either way, he said, it will “require significant financial resources” to implement the law, though he couldn’t say how much it would cost.
In 2014, the city enacted a law that allows illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, becoming one of just 10 states to do so.
The “limited purpose” licenses allow illegal immigrants to drive cars legally, since before the law passed they were doing so illegally. The licenses do not, though, allow immigrants to enter federal buildings or board airplanes, because they are not recognized by the federal government.
The licenses are also not recognized in any state other than the District of Columbia.
Being an American citizen used to mean something, and it was a privilege. Now being an American citizen is meaningless.
“These are residents who are well on their paths to citizenship....”
Really? How so?
More lawlessness from fascist, vote rigging democrats
They are making citizenship meaningless. It’s coming time to swing em from the lamp posts.
More grease on the slope.
What I’d like to know is this...
Is there ANY other nation in the world that gives non-citizens the right to vote?
Somebody needs to tell these retarded ***holes that not the way the world works.
There is no longer any meaning to being a citizen.
And sometimes seems to be a liability.
Certainly not to the ‘daytime tv watchers’.
In the Federal City, citizenship is destroyed.
Ironic, huh?
Residency trumps citizenship.
Why stop there? Send voting cards to Beijing and Hanoi. After all, why discriminate against future possible residents of D.C.? Shouldn’t they have a say?
In fact, let’s not stop there. ALL peoples of the world have an interest in seeing that the most deserving crack head runs The Capitol City, so let’s just let them all vote.
It’s only right. Right?
PS. I give up. When did the District of Columbia become a State?
I must have missed the Constitutional Convention that proposed and ratified that.
When they successfully get to the end of their path, they can vote ...... not before.
And of course they are not ever ‘slip’ and accidentally vote in any other elections...
I'll take a wild guess and say "no"?...
But hey... if we find a country that does-maybe we can take it over?
Article I, §8: "Congress shall have the power...To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States..."
Morons
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