Print 
PDF
Voting has long been one of the great privileges of American citizenship, but that could be changing.
Left-wing activists are going all-in with their demands to change all that.
The DC City Council has advanced a bill to let anyone vote in local elections, regardless of citizenship and immigration status, as long as they live in the city for at least 30 days.
The effort is so extreme that even the far-left Washington Post editorial board is calling it "radical."
This idea is picking up momentum among leftist Democrats.
Be informed, not misled.
A disturbing movement.
The Washington Post says "Voting is a foundational right of citizenship. That’s why we oppose a bill, poised to pass the D.C. Council this week, that would allow an estimated 50,000 noncitizen residents to cast ballots in local elections."
Thomas Jefferson would agree with the WAPO editorial board. He said, "The elective franchise if guarded as the ark of our safety, will peaceably dissipate all combinations to subvert a Constitution, dictated by the wisdom, and resting on the will of the people."
The "people," in the mind of our Founders, always meant "citizens."
The Washington Post continued:
This newspaper has opposed efforts over the past decade to rewrite D.C.’s election code so green-card holders could vote. What’s now before the council is more radical. The proposal has been expanded to give voting rights in local elections to all noncitizen adults, regardless of whether they are in the country legally, so long as they’ve resided in the District for 30 days.
Anyone who has ever been to a naturalization ceremony can attest to how special it feels to welcome new members into the American family. New citizens must swear an oath renouncing all allegiances to foreign powers and promising to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies. There’s nothing in this measure to prevent employees at embassies of governments that are openly hostile to the United States from casting ballots. Or foreign students who are studying abroad in Washington for a semester.
This movement is very disturbing.
Why?
Yesterday the Signal said, "Why is the district taking this reckless step? Pure politics."
They explain the Left is looking for ways to shift the country’s politics by fundamentally changing who can vote. Even the Post concedes that “progressives hope that reshaping the electorate will allow them to reshape local politics, prodding [D.C.] further to the left on issues such as rent control and spending on social programs.”
They're right, but D.C. is hardly the only place where the Left has realized the power that can be gained by changing the electorate. Under the euphemistic tagline of “expanding democracy,” left-wing activists across the country are working to hand the vote to imprisoned felons, children, and noncitizens—all groups they calculate are more likely to be liberal. After all, why let the people choose their government when you can have the government choose its people?
And there are plenty to choose from. Consider that over 5 million illegal immigrants have entered the United States in just the two years since President Joe Biden was elected. Enfranchising them in local races creates a powerful perverse incentive for politicians to excuse, or even demand an ongoing humanitarian crisis on the border so long as it feeds a steady stream of transient voters willing to back a far-left agenda.
Jason Snead, Executive Director for the "Honest Elections Project" explains this disturbing movement.
When the Left is accused of backing open borders for the prospect of new voters, they of course retort that it is illegal for any noncitizen to vote in federal elections. True enough, but races for Congress or the White House are hardly the only ones that matter.
Americans have seen firsthand the great damage that can be done when the woke Left captures school boards and town councils. As the old saying goes, all politics is local.
At least 15 municipalities nationally have enfranchised noncitizens to vote in local races, including major cities like San Francisco and New York. The Big Apple’s law is virtually identical to Washington’s pending measure: Anyone in the city for 30 days can vote, including illegal aliens.
That measure was challenged in court, and earlier this year a New York Supreme Court judge struck it down for violating the state constitution. Had it gone into effect, 800,000 noncitizens would have been handed the vote in New York City.
Unlike those other cities, however, Washington is a federal district answerable directly to Congress. Under the Constitution and the D.C. Home Rule Act, Congress can block bills passed and cleared by the City Council and mayor.
The question is, will it?
There is pushback among some "public servants." Is it enough?
Absolutely. The American people deserve to know where their leaders stand on an issue this important. For two years, Democrats in Congress preached about the need to “save democracy.”
Now, with the nation’s capital city preparing to hand the vote to illegal aliens and foreign operatives, will they stand up for fair and honest elections? Or will they look the other way while progressives erode the foundations of our republic?
As long as Democrats control Congress, they will look the other way.
Takeaway
This episode shines the light on two troubling issues.
Even though polling shows that only 9% of Americans think noncitizens should be able to vote, far-left Democrats, claiming to be saving democracy, keep pushing this movement forward.
Secondly, there is a bit of a silver lining. Washington, D.C., is showing the modern Left’s true colors.
The Left believes that democracy belongs to them. The rest of us just live in it.
Thomas Jefferson said, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”
President Eisenhower said, "The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter."
Vote.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful. Vote.