A simple question often deserves a simple answer. That was the case last Wednesday when Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, “Do you believe illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote?”
“Under our laws,” she replied, “you have to be a citizen of the United States in order to vote.” That was one of the more coherent, not to mention constitutionally sound, statements that Jackson offered under oath in four days of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A simple answer about American principles can’t be taken for granted these days, especially from someone who claims to be a proponent of law and order but otherwise seems intent on dismantling law and order by being extra-soft on crime with markedly light sentences for violent offenders and career criminals.
That a U.S. senator had to pose such a question to a federal judge vying for the highest court in the land speaks volumes about the vulnerability of our foundational tenets. The privilege to cast votes for representatives is a hallmark of our republic. Implicit — or at least what was once implicit — is that voting should be an act of citizens, and citizens alone. To put it another way, and even more simply, people who are not Americans should never be permitted to vote in any election at any level.
Citizen-only voting is the foundation upon which flourishing societies and durable sovereign nations are built. Citizens are, in a sense, both the shareholders and the custodians of a political regime. They are personally and inextricably invested in the present and the future of their country emotionally, materially, and otherwise.
As former President Barack Obama said, “Elections have consequences.” That’s true. But those consequences specifically must be tied to the beliefs and opinions of the people who constitute our country and, by extension, our moral fabric. It must be voters who choose the officials who will, for example, choose the ways our tax dollars are spent and decide whether our children and grandchildren fight in wars. Voters also reflect the citizenry’s opinions about the cultural and moral fabric upon which America’s founding principles were built.
Blue states such as California and New York have already eaten away at this paradigm of American democracy by passing laws that allow noncitizens to vote in at least some local elections. These states claim these laws will apply only to nonfederal elections. They’re lying. They know it will be impossible to stop the boulder once it gets rolling. Particular rhetoric from national politicians coupled with two major pieces of legislation in Congress to overhaul elections is more than enough to conjecture that a Democratic Party proposal for noncitizen voting at the federal level isn’t far off.
The Left will further argue that noncitizen voting in state and/or local elections will not affect national policy. That argument is as asinine as it is uninformed. The reason is simple: Even the most local elections affect national power and the use of resources.
Mayors and city councils allocate (or withhold) federal dollars and support (or obstruct) federal law enforcement. State legislatures can drive legislation or support policies that support or interfere with federal goals and policies. State governors have substantial impact on the degree of federal influence in their states, including the selection of interim U.S. senators. Thus, any state that allows noncitizen voting effectively empowers noncitizens to counter and disenfranchise the will of the citizens.
As a practical matter, allowing noncitizens to vote in even local elections causes major oversight issues, further blowing open the door for voter fraud. The fact that most federal, state, and local elections happen in the same polling places at the same time around the country would make it virtually impossible, even under ideal circumstances, to prevent noncitizen voters from voting in federal contests. Local polling places have a hard enough time handling the logistical challenges of Election Day, with just the basic obligation to separate authorized from unauthorized ballots. Noncitizen voting even at the local level is a disaster in the making, which is precisely why proponents, who are virtually all on the Left, want it.
The national discussion about election integrity in the wake of questionable, and, dare I say, illegal, election practices in several states in 2020 must feature forceful pushback against this latest assault on citizens’ rights. Citizenship has, and rightly so, its distinct privileges. One of those privileges has always been and must continue to be the right to determine the direction of our country via free and fair elections.
John Zadrozny is counsel at America First Legal Foundation.
