Battleground Wisconsin voters weigh constitutional amendment on noncitizens voting in future elections

Voters in the battleground state of Wisconsin will decide at the ballot box in November whether to revise the state constitution to explicitly ban noncitizens from voting in municipal, state and federal elections. 

The statewide referendum authored by Republican legislators is listed at the bottom of the ballot and will ask voters for permission to amend section 1 of article III of the state constitution, which deals with voting, to specify that “only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum.” 

Currently, the state constitution says “every United States citizen age 18 or older” can vote.

“Addressing this issue now will ensure votes are not diluted in the future,” state Sen. Julian Bradley, a Republican, explained to the nonprofit news organization Votebeat Wisconsin. “It’s best for the government to address this concern before it becomes a problem.”

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In recent years, North Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Ohio and Louisiana have passed amendments to their state constitutions specifying that “only” U.S. citizens can vote. The question is on the ballot in eight other states this year, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri, The Associated Press reported. 

Republicans argue they are trying to protect election integrity as migrants pour across the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows more than 10 million encounters with illegal immigrants at U.S. borders under the Biden-Harris administration and at least another 2 million known got-a-ways. 

Democrats and other opponents say the state amendment prohibiting non-citizens from voting has no practical effect – no Wisconsin municipalities allow noncitizens to vote – and is instead designed to draw conservatives to the polls and stoke anger against foreigners in the United States.

“There is no problem with noncitizens voting,” Jeff Mandell, an attorney with Law Forward, a nonprofit organization, told the AP. “It is the very definition of a solution in search of a problem.”

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A 1996 federal law bans noncitizens in any state from casting their ballots in a federal election. It does not apply to state and local elections. 

Multiple municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont as well as the District of Columbia allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections such as school board and city council races. 

The Department of Justice last week sued Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s administration for removing people from the voter rolls who had been identified as noncitizens and could not verify their citizenship within a two-week grace period. The state said it removed 6,000 ineligible people from its rolls.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in August that over 6,500 potential noncitizens had been removed from the state’s voter rolls since 2021. Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose also said in August that he referred 138 apparent noncitizens found to have voted in a recent election for prosecution. 

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Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has said 3,251 people previously identified as noncitizens by the federal government have been deactivated on the state’s voter registration rolls.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.