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October 5, 2022

Although Washington DC is not a state, this is nevertheless a dangerous precedent. Mid-terms are less than a month away.

In a vote held on Tuesday that ended in 12-1 results, the city council of Washington, D.C. chose to advance a bill that let the non-citizen residents of the city vote in all future local elections.

The bill is slated to push ahead to an upcoming final vote before hitting the desk of the city’s Democrat Mayor, Muriel Bowser.

“Our immigrant neighbors of all statuses participate, contribute and care about our community in our city. They, like all DC residents, deserve a right to have a say in their government,” stated D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen as part of a legislative meeting held on Tuesday, as reported by The Hill.

“They raise families here, contribute to their community. They run businesses that people depend on, and they pay taxes that we decide how to spend. Yet they have no ability to elect local leaders who make decisions about their bodies, their businesses and their tax dollars,” stated Allen.

If it manages to make it to the Mayor’s desk and becomes law, would allow non-citizen residents in the District of Columbia to take part in the voting for local elections that include its mayor, school board members, and attorney general. The residency requirement was only set at 30 days for non-citizens, an important detail that sparked the single opposing vote from Councilmember Mary Cheh.

The advancement of the bill takes place as Washington faces an ever-climbing number of migrants being moved into the area from Arizona and Texas. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott has relocated over 8,100 migrants to the nation’s capital as of this past week, as reported by a release from his office.

Arizona has reportedly relocated close to 2,000 migrants to Washington over the past few months, as reported by KTVK-TV. The cost for each busload of migrants was estimated to be a bit over $82,000 per trip.

The D.C. non-citizens voting bill comes to light as a larger number, which is still growing, of locations across the U.S. seek to add non-citizens to their lists of registered voters. So far, plans in the same vein have been slammed with strong legal challenges in the courts.

Out in San Francisco, a ruling from back in August knocked down a city ordinance that allowed non-citizens the ability to vote in elections concerning the school board. The law was officially challenged by quite a few different groups, including the United States Justice Foundation and the California Public Policy Foundation.

“The State of California has a long-standing requirement that voters must be United States citizens,” argued the plaintiffs in the case. “This requirement applies to every election in the state, even those conducted by charter cities, because determining voter qualifications is a matter of statewide concern where state law supersedes conflicting charter city ordinances.”

https://libertyunlocked.com/bill-allowing-non-citizens-to-vote-pushes-through-in-washington-d-c/