Neither of my parents would have been able to vote. I wouldn’t be able to vote. My kids wouldn’t be able to vote. And although my daughter doesn’t have children yet, they wouldn’t be able to vote either.
How did this happen? Every generation adds a person whose family immigrated more recently -my mother’s parents were born here, but my father’s weren’t. My parents were born here, but my husband’s weren’t. My daughter’s parents were born here- but her fiance’s father wasn’t. (and perhaps oddly, all of these immigrants were from different countries- it wasn’t a matter of an Italian-American with US-born parents marrying one with Italian-born parents)
My mother was apparently born here, but there has never been any documentary registration of that birth, which is assumed through family tradition. So technically, I would meet the definition of “anchor baby” – person claiming citizenship by birth in the USA of a mother whose US citizenship or legal residence was undocumented. And none of the poll options apply to me.
On my Dad’s side, his parents immigrated from Great Britain, and he was ‘accidentally’ born there, after she returned for a visit, as the depression hit, unaware she was with child!
On my Mom’s side, her paternal Grandmother was Metis.
First Nations blood and I still wouldn’t be able to vote, dammit!
Mom’s side has been here since they left Altekirchen Germany [or whichever damned geopolitical unit it was in the day] in the 1630s and ended up in one of the British colonies over here, and Dad’s side has been here since about the same time [notable ancestor is Sir Wm Phip, sorry for the Witch trials…] with a little admixture of other families [one line of which has been here since it was Niew Amsterdam] and one lone German who wandered in back in 1830.
mrAru has some American Native in him, and is related to a few early politicians in the Colonial NY/Pa/NJ area, though his more current relatives were Irish that literally were pushed off the boat without bothering to actually land and use a dock back in the 1870s, they were from Athy and named Dunnihew [at least that is how I think it is spelled] and ended up in Missouri. That part of the family donated the family farm to the state and is now a park with some of the last surviving untouched raw original prairie plants. HE and I joke about being related somewhere back in the early 1700s, which is moderately likely as we look very much alike - same coloring, bone structure and such.
No vote for me. While I can trace some of my lineage almost all the way back to the Mayflower, I also have 2 grandparents who were born in Europe. What the hell, though-- I live in CA so my vote doesn’t matter anyway.
I’ve got one England-born grandparent and three US-born GPs. Both my parents are US-born No voting for me.
Wife has 4 immigrant GPs but both parents are native US. No voting for her.
But our (imaginary) kids would finally be voters. Just 110 years after the last relevant immigrant arrived here.
Which demonstrates just how conservative is conservative enough for some people. Perhaps those same deep thinkers should advocate for limiting voting to only people over the age of 80? Or 90?
Not sure. My maternal grandmother was very secretive about her past. She was born Jewish and always wanted to hide it. She may have been born in Russia or England. So, dunno.
You’d have to go back 5 generations to find folks who weren’t born in America in my family tree. Most of the lines came to the USA prior to the revolution though and quite a few to the early 1600s.
All four of my grandparents were born in eastern Europe or Russia. Both parents born in US. Same with my wife. So my one kid born in the US could vote; the other two were born outside, although considered “natural born citizens”. So they could run for president but could not vote. Not having been born here, neither my nor I could vote in Canada.
Why not go whole hog and rule that in order to vote all your ancestors had to be here before 1492?
I could vote; my grandparents were born in Ohio, New York, and two in New Jersey.
It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that Coulter is an idiot. Trump couldn’t even vote for himself if her proposed rule were in place. It is part of the genius of American law that someone naturalized an hour ago has exactly the same rights, no more and no less, as someone whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower.
