According to a report by Reuters, eight states are planning to vote on measures in November that would explicitly state in their state constitutions that only citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections.
These states include North Carolina and Wisconsin, which are considered key battlegrounds in the upcoming election, as well as five GOP-led states (Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina) and one Democratic state (Kentucky).
It is worth noting that noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections, but these states aim to reinforce this restriction through constitutional amendments.
Political analysts and democracy advocates point out that noncitizens are currently not allowed to vote in federal elections. They argue that concerns about the integrity of the electoral process have mainly been amplified by Trump’s baseless assertions that his defeat to Biden in 2020 resulted from extensive voter fraud.
According to Jason Simmons, the chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, voters are insisting on the authenticity of every counted vote.
This sentiment is echoed by Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who highlights that a significant portion of Republicans, around 70%, now harbor doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, primarily influenced by Trump’s repeated claims.
In the United States, legal noncitizens have the privilege to vote in local elections in just 17 localities. Examples of these areas are San Francisco and Washington, D.C., where noncitizens are allowed to participate in municipal races.
Trump’s accusations concerning noncitizen voting can be traced back to the 2016 election. In that election, he asserted that millions of noncitizen immigrants had cast illegal votes, following his loss in the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.