XPost: alt.politics.usa.congress, or.politics, alt.politics.trump   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   The House passed legislation on Thursday that would undo a District of   
   Columbia law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, part of a   
   broader bid by Republicans to amplify false claims by former President   
   Donald J. Trump of widespread illegal voting by immigrants, a rare   
   occurrence that is already outlawed in federal elections.   
      
   The bill has virtually no chance of being taken up in the Democratic-led   
   Senate or making it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law. But   
   Republicans have used it, and other legislation aiming to crack down on   
   voting by noncitizens, to stoke distrust in the country’s election laws   
   and infrastructure ahead of the general election in November, a key pillar   
   of Mr. Trump’s strategy to preemptively accuse Democrats of cheating him   
   out of the presidency.   
      
   In the face of ample evidence to the contrary, the former president has   
   long claimed falsely that federal elections are susceptible to widespread   
   voter fraud and illegal voting by undocumented immigrants, who have skewed   
   the outcomes in favor of Democrats — a charge that congressional   
   Republicans have echoed.   
      
   The nation’s capital is one of more than a dozen municipalities in the   
   country — most of them in California, Maryland and Vermont — that allow   
   noncitizen residents to cast ballots in local contests, though voters   
   eligible under the local laws rarely do so, even when they are allowed.   
      
   The vote was 262 to 143 to roll back the District’s voting law so that   
   noncitizens would be barred from participating, with 52 Democrats and all   
   Republicans supporting it.   
      
   On Thursday, Republicans said that the Washington, D.C. law was a gateway   
   to a more sinister effort underway throughout the country to enfranchise   
   people who should not be allowed to vote.   
      
   “This is a dangerous and bad precedent, and an un-American attempt at   
   gaining power. And it needs to be stopped here and it needs to be stopped   
   now. We have to stand up,” Representative Jeff Van Drew, Republican of New   
   Jersey, said.   
      
   He and other Republicans said they had been admonished for warning of the   
   possibility that noncitizens could soon gain voting rights, and held up   
   the D.C. law as proof that the fear was legitimate.   
      
   “Here we are today. D.C., our nation’s own capitol, allowing illegal   
   immigrants to vote in illegal elections. Yesterday’s conspiracy.   
   Yesterday’s conspiracy is today’s reality.”   
      
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   There is no evidence that noncitizens cast ballots during the 2020   
   presidential election, but Mr. Trump and other Republicans have again   
   raised the possibility that it could happen this year. They have cited the   
   surge in migrants across the United States border with Mexico to claim   
   that the likelihood has grown, and they argue that even a minuscule number   
   of illegal votes could swing a presidential election.   
      
   “Noncitizen voting, whether it’s one vote or a million votes, dilutes the   
   voting power of the citizen,” Representative August Pfluger, Republican of   
   Texas and the author of the bill, said on Thursday. “Congress must act   
   clearly and decisively to bar noncitizens from voting in any election,   
   including in Washington, D.C.”   
      
   Some Democrats argue that immigrants should have voting rights regardless   
   of their status, as most of them pay taxes at levels comparable to that of   
   U.S. citizens, contribute to their local economies and send their children   
   to local schools.   
      
   “At the local level, everybody has the same basic interest in efficient   
   garbage collection, excellent public schools and so on,” Representative   
   Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, said.   
      
   Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat and the District's   
   nonvoting delegate, said that Congress should not interfere in the   
   District’s local affairs and criticized the timing of the effort, given   
   that primary voting is already underway for some elections in D.C.   
      
   “They did so to disrupt the elections,” she said of congressional   
   Republicans.   
      
   Under the Constitution, Congress has authority over D.C. affairs. The   
   House advanced two measures last year to overturn D.C. laws, including the   
   noncitizen voting measure and another, overhauling the criminal code.   
      
   The G.O.P.-led effort partially succeeded when President Biden signed the   
   bill to undo the changes in the criminal code. But the Democratic-led   
   Senate refused to take up the repeal of the noncitizen voting law,   
   allowing it to go into effect last March. It is expected to do so again   
   this year, leaving the voting law intact.   
      
   https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/23/us/politics/house-passes-measure-to-   
   repeal-dc-noncitizen-voting-law.html   
      
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