Illegal aliens and foreign diplomats may soon elect the Mayor of the Nation’s Capital as the Washington DC City Council passed a bill to expand local voting rights to any adult with just 30 days of residency in the city. Current DC Mayor Muriel Bowser did not sign or veto the bill meaning it was officially enacted on Monday of this week.
Unlike the law recently passed in New York City, which also allowed illegal aliens to vote in local elections, the D.C. measure does not require noncitizens to have U.S. work authorization to participate in local elections. This means illegal aliens, foreign students, and foreign diplomats who have resided in the city for only a month will legally be able to cast ballots in city elections.
The Washington Times reported, “There’s nothing in this measure to prevent employees at embassies of governments that are openly hostile to the United States from casting ballots.” A writer at the New Republic agreed with the sentiment giving a hypothetical example: “A Russian diplomat could live their entire life in Moscow or St. Petersburg, take a job as a cultural attaché at Russia’s D.C. Embassy in August 2024, move into their new apartment that September, and cast a ballot in D.C.’s local elections that November.”
Dispute the impending fiasco that will inevitably arise from D.C. officials being forced to manage two voter lists and two sets of ballots and the deterioration of voting as an incentive to naturalize; the D.C. city council passed the bill by a 12-1 margin. However, because Washington is a federal district, acts of the city council are subject to review by Congress, where Representatives have 30 days to object via a joint resolution.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board reports:
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz have said they will seek to block the noncitizen voting proposal. Will Democrats stand in the way of that attempt? Let’s see the roll call.
You can read the full article here.
