Frederick Is The Latest Maryland City Trying To Let Foreign Nationals Influence Its Elections
For all the hand-wringing they did over “Russian interference” in the 2016 election, Democrats couldn’t give a rip about foreign nationals voting in local U.S. elections.
In a subtle move that didn’t attract national media attention, the city of Frederick, Maryland, took another step toward legalizing noncitizen voting for its municipal elections last week. According to The Frederick News-Post, the locality’s charter review committee reaffirmed plans to recommend the city permit residents “to vote in city elections regardless of their immigration status.” The city government estimates there are approximately 6,400 voting age noncitizens residing in Frederick. That’s nearly 8 percent of Frederick’s population of 82,175 — a sizeable portion of potential votes. It’s an even more significant number when you consider that only 10,546 residents voted in Frederick’s municipal election in 2021.
The committee previously recommended allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections during an Oct. 5 meeting. In that meeting, the body axed the proposal’s original language specifying that only individuals who are in the country legally would be permitted to vote.
Here is the original proposal as reported by the Post:
The City shall explore extending voting rights to documented noncitizen residents (that is with an identified address in the city and living in the country legally: i.e., with a Green card, visa, tax identification number or work permit, etc.). This will require the city to develop a separate voting roll of such persons.
The committee decided to remove “’explore extending voting’ and recommend ‘extend voting’ rights.” Other terms deleted from the original proposal include the qualifier “documented,” the reference to “living in the country legally,” and the text regarding work permits, green cards, and other official documents.
According to the Post, the committee is expected to conclude deliberations on its recommendation and additional proposals at its Nov. 2 meeting. Following public comment on the proposals, a final vote by the committee is scheduled for Nov. 30. A date has not been set for when the committee would submit finalized proposals to the Frederick mayor and Board of Aldermen, however.
The push in Frederick to gift illegal aliens the right to vote in American elections is not an isolated incident. Rather, it’s a nationwide effort being spearheaded by Democrats to undermine the American electoral system.
While federal law stipulates that only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections, several Democrat-led cities in states such as Maryland and California have adopted measures in recent years permitting noncitizen voting in their municipal elections. Despite their state constitution forbidding such a practice, Rhode Island Democrats introduced legislation during this year’s legislative session aimed at granting such privileges to their noncitizen population. Fortunately, the bill never made it out of committee.
Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. passed legislation last year granting foreign nationals the ability to vote in the district’s local elections. House Republicans’ legislative efforts to revoke the law have been blocked by Senate Democrats, however.
Democrats’ eagerness to allow illegal aliens to vote in U.S. elections further undermines the left’s faux outrage over Russian interference in the 2016 election. For years, Democrats like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi feigned concern about how Russia’s supposed interference constituted an attack on “the sanctity of American democracy itself.” In an effort to sabotage the campaign and then the administration of Donald Trump, the left took their hyperbolic response to the next level by falsely accusing him of colluding with Moscow to steal the election.
While there was never any evidence to support their claims, the Democrats’ allies throughout legacy media picked up the narrative and ran with it, fomenting baseless conspiracies about the Trump campaign’s nonexistent, top-secret communications with the Kremlin.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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