2 More States Moving Forward to Block Noncitizens From Voting

Two states advanced proposals this week to amend their constitutions to require citizenship for voting. 

The South Dakota Senate voted 33-2 on Tuesday for an amendment banning noncitizen voting.

Two days later, the Kansas House of Representatives voted 90-28 for a similar amendment to its state’s constitution. 

The amendments would still have to be passed by the other chambers of the legislatures–which is likely since Republicans control the legislatures in these conservative-leaning states. After that, voters will decide. Each state requires a simple majority of the voters to pass a constitutional amendment. In other states, voters have approved amendments to ban noncitizen voting by 70% or more.  

So far, 14 states have similar amendments to their state constitutions, eight of which were adopted in this past November election, according to Americans for Citizen Voting, an advocacy group. In most cases, voters approved the amendments by comfortable margins. 

“We are thrilled by the quick action in Kansas and South Dakota,” Americans for Citizen Voting President Avi McCulluh said in a public statement. “We are hopeful for passage in the other chambers in these states.”

However, opponents insist it’s a waste of time. Cille King, a board member of the Kansas chapter of the League of Women Voters, told KSNT-TV News, an NBC affiliate in Topeka, that the law is already clear that only citizens can vote.

“HCR 5004 should be dismissed as a waste of time and taxpayer money,” she said. “The current language is clear that only citizens can vote. The new language does nothing to address any possible voter roll errors.”

King further argued that changing the wording in the amendment “removes the certainty of every citizen’s right to vote.”

The citizen-only voting amendments will not affect federal elections in these states, where it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote. Rather, the amendments are to prevent municipalities from allowing noncitizen voting. 

Currently 21 local jurisdictions in California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow noncitizens to vote in local races for school board, mayor, and similar offices. 

Critics warn that allowing noncitizens to vote in local but not state or federal elections places a burden on maintaining two separate voter registration lists for election officials. 

“There is a myth out there that foreign citizens are not voting in the United States. That is not true,” McCulluh of Americans for Citizens Voting said. “The media and our opponents frequently get that wrong. Even though it’s happening in our nation’s capital.”

As I noted in my book “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” foreign nationals have registered to vote and voted in past elections, as a matter of public record.

Americans for Citizen Voting helped campaign for successful citizen-only voting balloting initiatives in 2024 in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.

Voters approved constitutional amendments requiring citizenship to vote in Louisiana and Ohio in 2022, according to Ballotpedia. In 2020, voters approved similar constitutional amendments in Florida, Alabama, and Colorado. In 2018, voters in North Dakota approved such an amendment. 

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