I’m sure this was asked before so if anyone has a link to a thread that’d be cool
Anyway this discussion came up at work, and I was with a group of employees and all 15 of them, they are LEGAL immigrants in this country legally, said they vote for president.
I said “I don’t think you can,” everyone one of them said “Sure we can, we registered.” So I bet them and lost a dollar a piece when they all produced voter registration cards?
I thought that was a key point in becoming a citizen so you can vote for president. So either I’m wrong, no one checked their immigration status or they are all up to something
And also what determains who can vote for President? I mean besides the amendments for women, and 18 year olds and the poll tax?
Voting in local or state elections is left up to the localities or states in question, and there’s an out for aliens who, in certain circumstances, mistakenly but reasonably believe they’re really citizens.
Your co-workers are permanent residents (with “green cards”), not naturalized citizens, right?
Once upon a time, there was no such federal law, and the states alone decided who could vote in elections — for local, state or federal offices. In the 19th century, most states allowed an alien to vote if he had filed his “first papers” (a declaration of intention) for citizenship. That he never followed up by becoming a citizen was immaterial, he could continue voting for the rest of his life.
i don’t want to hijack this into a political thread, but the fact is that the Motor Voter act of 1993 made this kind of thing much easier by linking voter registration to drivers licenses. And you do not need to be a citizen to be a licensed driver.
The Justice Department found in their investigation that nine of the 9/11 hijackers were registered voters. That ought to illustrate the problem.
I think you are asking two questions, 1. Can non-citizens vote, and 2. Can they vote legally.
The answer to question 1 is yes, if they can get registered then they can vote, and depending on how they look, sound, and where they are they may or may not be asked to produce proof of citizenship. For example, a good friend of mine in the US came over as a teenager from Germany, but never bothered to become a naturalized citizen. She looks and sounds American, and is registered to vote in New York.
The answer to question 2, is no. Only citizens are allowed to vote in US elections. The good news is that becoming a citizen is not that hard. I’ve started the process for myself, and it looks like in about 3 years I will be eligible to apply.
I am a naturalized US citizen. I could not vote before I became a citizen, and now I can. I was recently (a few weeks ago) present at my mother’s naturalization ceremony. One of the big points made was that these new citizens can now vote - voter registration cards were given out at the ceremony.
What canard was tried in the first place? Your own cite confirms that non-citizens, including legal aliens, can easily acquire state identification documents. Voter registrars do not typically validate one’s citizenship if you can provide ID.
Not only is it easy for non-citizens to vote, it is damn hard to prosecute them. My ex-wife was a Canadian here legally with a green card. She registered to vote, and voted in all elections, including for president. During a particularly nasty divorce, I dropped a dime on her to the voter fraud unit of the California Secretary of State’s office. A special investigator compiled a case against her, including the records of her immigrant status and her absentee ballots. He submitted the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney, who declined to prosecute, even though all the investigation had been done for him. I later read an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding voter fraud that stated that LA county had never prosecuted a single voter fraud case.
Exactly. Getting a drivers license does not require citizenship. It does not even require permanent residence. I am only here on a temporary work visa (although I have a permanent residence application in the works) and I quite happily have a Georgia drivers license.
I’m really surprised however that one can register to vote as a non-citizen without knowingly committing fraud. Surely the forms at the very least ask you to check a box indicating whether you are a citizen or not? Did these guys genuinely believe that they were legally entitled to vote?
At the present time, none of the 50 American states allow non-citizens to legally vote in either state or federal elections. (States determine suffrage for federal elections, subject to constitutional constraints that they may not discriminate on grounds of race, sex, failure to pay taxes, age if over 18, etc.)
However, some states delegate authority for determining suffrage in local elections to local governments. Maryland is one state which does so, and several small Maryland cities, of which the largest and best-known is Takoma Park, allow non-citizens to vote in local elections. A few cities allow non-citizens to vote in school board elections. Chicago allows non-citizen parents to vote and even (I believe) serve on “school councils”, which act as parental school oversight boards.
A state could still enfranchise non-citizens for state and federal elections if it wished to. None has done so since the 1920’s.
As above, it’s a violation of federal law for non-citizens to vote in federal elections. As far as I know, a state could still enfranchise non-citizens for state or local elections.
