Eight US states will vote on proposals that would make it illegal for people who are not citizens to vote

Eight U.S. states want to make it illegal for people who are not citizens to vote, which is already against the law. Critics say this is part of a plan by Donald Trump and his Republican allies to question the election results if he loses again on November 5.

Two of the states are likely to play a big role in deciding the race. Those on the Nov. 5 vote want to change the constitutions of several states. Republican Party candidate Trump says that votes from people who are not citizens could change the result of the election.

If most voters agree, state constitutions would be changed to make it clear that only citizens can vote. However, some critics say this change won’t have much of an impact because it is already against the law for people who aren’t citizens to vote in those states.

North Carolina and Wisconsin are swing states, and Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina are all solidly Republican. These plans will be on the ballot in November in all of these states.

Supporters say the measures address voter worries caused by record numbers of illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border under Democratic President Joe Biden’s watch and the discovery that some states’ voter rolls contain small numbers of people who may not be citizens.

Independent political experts and supporters of democracy point out that it is already against the law for people who are not citizens of the United States to vote in federal elections. They also say that any loss of faith in the system is due to Trump’s false claims that his loss to Biden in 2020 was due to fraud.

The proposed amendments are the latest attack in a campaign that has seen at least eight lawsuits filed by Republicans challenging the ways that people register to vote and an attempt by the majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives to pass a law that would require Americans to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.

Jason Simmons, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, said, “People all over the state are worried about the voting process and want to make sure that the votes that are counted are legal votes.”

Democrats and even some Republicans say the moves show that Trump is still trying to make people doubt the accuracy of U.S. elections.

GOP pollster Whit Ayres, who has worked for U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham as well as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, said, “For the last four years, the loser of the last presidential election has been saying that the election was rigged, and 70% of Republicans believe them.”

NONCITIZENS CAN ONLY VOTE IN A FEW LOCALITIES

Legal noncitizens can vote in 17 U.S. cities and towns right now, but not in federal elections. This includes San Francisco and Washington, D.C., which are both strong Democratic cities.

This year, voters in Santa Ana, California, will decide if noncitizen residents should be able to vote in local elections. The mayor of Santa Ana is a Democrat.

Studies done by outside groups (opens in new tab) have shown that illegal voting by people who are not citizens doesn’t happen very often. This is also what Republican state officials in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Georgia have found.

Politics teacher at the University of Florida Hannah Alarian said, “The evidence shows that this just really isn’t a concern.” “It’s not an issue really prevalent at all.”

Trump’s claims about people who are not citizens go back to the 2016 election.

There were a lot of different ways to vote in that election, but Trump won by getting more Electoral College votes than Hillary Clinton. However, Clinton got more of the national general vote, which Trump said was because millions of illegal immigrants were voting. He has kept up this false claim that Democrats are trying to get people to come into the country illegally to vote.

Trump said in his debate with Kamala Harris on September 11 that many of the illegal aliens who were coming in were being tried to get them to vote. “And that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

Republicans in Congress have used the conspiracy theory and other unproven claims of cheating to limit how much they are ready to admit that Trump may have lost the 2024 election when the results are sent to Congress on January 6.

In a recent MSNBC opinion piece, U.S. Representative Joseph Morelle, the top Democrat on a House committee that oversees elections, said, “Trump’s lies about noncitizens voting have been repeatedly debunked.” “They have persisted in a clear attempt to generate anxiety in the minds of voters, and to serve, come November, as the foundation for false claims of election fraud.”