Eight states will have constitutional amendments backed by Republican lawmakers on the November ballot designed to make clear that only American citizens can vote in elections in those states.
But it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections in those states and at the federal level, and it rarely happens.
Election experts warn it’s one of the ways Republicans at the national and state levels are seeking to drive the unsubstantiated narrative that noncitizens are voting in large numbers in ways that could affect the outcome of elections up and down the ballot amid a heated presidential race.
The efforts could stoke people’s fears and play on their misconceptions about voting in U.S. elections, they say, and indirectly legitimize claims by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans regarding a problem that is largely nonexistent.
“These proposed constitutional amendments are aimed really at two things: preventing local governments in those states from allowing non-U.S. citizens to vote in local elections, and advancing this false narrative that non-U.S. citizens are somehow participating in U.S. elections in large numbers, which is totally unsupported by any evidence or facts,” said Jonathan Diaz, the director of voting advocacy at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center.
Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, has long made false claims that noncitizens are voting in elections and that Democrats have helped them enter the country to cast those ballots. The Republican National Committee’s election integrity campaign, which aims to recruit 100,000 poll monitors and lawyers for the upcoming election, has also emphasized noncitizen voting as a danger that could imperil the results this fall.
Meanwhile, GOP officials in several states have recently purged their voter rolls with the goal of removing noncitizens, while House Speaker Mike Johnson has pushed legislation that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote.
In addition, Republican-controlled legislatures in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin have referred constitutional amendments to this year’s ballot that seek to make it explicitly illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and local elections. Supporters argue that the amendments serve as a way to get ahead of any potential voting problems.
No state constitution in the U.S. allows noncitizens to vote. And while certain cities and municipalities in three states, as well as Washington, D.C., have allowed noncitizens to vote in some local elections, none are located in the eight states with these ballot measures.
The proposed amendments in Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin would effectively modify existing language in those states’ constitutions so that the documents read that “only” citizens can vote, as opposed to current language that states that “every citizen” or “all citizens” can do so.
In Idaho and Kentucky, the proposals would insert language in those states’ constitutions stating that “no person who is not a citizen of the United States” can vote.
In these eight states, lawmakers control the constitutional amendment process, not citizens.
Lawmakers in those states who worked to pass the legislative referrals, as well as groups supporting them, say their efforts are about further safeguarding elections.
“We’re doing it to protect your rights as a citizen. We’re doing it to protect your right to vote,” Wisconsin Republican state Sen. Julian Bradley said last week at a press conference arranged by Americans for Citizen Voting, a nonprofit group that has helped organize the legislative efforts in these eight states.
Bradley, who helped lead the legislative effort in Wisconsin to place the measure on the ballot, added that it seeks to “shore up another piece where people are concerned about who’s voting and how they’re voting.”
North Carolina Republican state Sen. Brad Overcash said that the amendments merely “empower” people in these eight states “to make the decision to amend their own constitution, to declare that citizens, and only citizens, are allowed to vote.”
Jack Tomczak, the vice president of outreach for Americans for Citizen Voting, didn’t dispute that noncitizen voting — particularly in local elections in these eight states — is virtually nonexistent, saying in an interview that the efforts are instead “about vigilance.”
“We, and legislators who sponsor these, are getting ahead of fixing a problem that maybe has not reared its head as much in these states,” he said. “It’s not like it’s happening everywhere and it must be stopped immediately. But preemption is not a bad thing.”
