By refusing to bring forward a bill from the municipal government of Washington, D.C., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer effectively saw to it that “noncitizens” will be allowed to vote in elections in the nation’s capital city.
D.C. Bill 24.300, passed by the D.C. Council last year, lowers the qualifications to vote in municipal elections to just one month of residency in the District of Columbia, scrapping the previous U.S. citizenship or legal immigration status requirement. While the bill was overturned in the Republican-led House of Representatives in February — with 42 Democrats joining Republicans in voting to overturn it — Schumer let it die in the Senate. Per the U.S. Constitution, Congress has the authority to overturn laws passed in the District.
As The Washington Post’s Editorial Board noted, the new law would allow 50,000 noncitizen residents, including 21,000 illegal residents, to cast ballots in city elections. Under this law, foreign nationals who have pledged loyalty to another country, such as Russia or China, would be allowed to vote in Washington’s municipal elections if they’ve resided in the District for more than 30 days.
It is ironic, given all of the hysteria coming from elite circles in Washington about “foreign influence” in our elections, such as the infamous Russian collusion hoax, that these same people are now empowering foreign nationals to vote on local initiatives, referendums, recalls, and even changes to the charter of the nation’s capital city.
“Why are Democrats in the U.S. Senate allowing this crazy law to go into effect tomorrow?” asked Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, at a press conference yesterday. “Even the left-leaning Washington Post recognizes that elections in our nation’s capital should not be decided by the votes of Russian and Chinese nationals working at their country’s embassies or non-citizens in the country illegally. Stop the insanity.”
In addition to granting the franchise to foreign nationals and illegal immigrants, Washington does not have the funds to implement the law. According to a memo by Washington’s Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee, “Funds are not sufficient in the fiscal year 2023 through fiscal year 2026 budget and financial plan to implement the bill. The bill will cost $1.42 million in fiscal year 2023 and $1.64 million over the financial plan to implement the bill.”
If the city government does not have the funds to implement the measure, it should be taken off the books instead of making American taxpayers around the country foot the bill. Further, letting noncitizens vote in municipal elections is deeply unpopular with the American public. An RMG poll conducted over the weekend found that 75 percent of Americans oppose allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.
While the Senate failed to take action on D.C. Bill 24. 300, it had no trouble joining the House in voting against proposed updates to Washington’s criminal code that lowered penalties for a number of common violent crimes, including robbery and carjacking.
Victoria Marshall is a staff writer at The Federalist. Her writing has been featured in the New York Post, National Review, and Townhall. She graduated from Hillsdale College in May 2021 with a major in politics and a minor in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @vemrshll.
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