Politics
‘Sanctuary’ State Passes Bill That Could Open Door To Widespread Non-Citizen Voting
The Washington State legislature recently passed legislation that, according to conservative legal scholars, open the door for widespread non-citizen voting in the deep blue state.
Senate Bill 5077 requires the governor to designate state agencies that will automatically register individuals to vote when they access government services. Anyone who signs up for public benefits or uses a state agency in Washington will have their information automatically transmitted to the Secretary of State’s office for voter registration.
The bill largely mirrors an amendment in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, also known as the “Motor Voter Act,” which requires local Department of Motor Vehicles offices to automatically register any individual who applies for a drivers license. With the new Washington bill, the process will be expanded to include state welfare agencies and offices performing naturalization services, according to an analysis from the Daily Caller.
Individuals enrolling in health insurance through the state’s exchange will also have their information automatically transmitted to the Secretary of State’s office to facilitate voter registration.
The new legislation has raised alarm bells among election integrity advocates due to large numbers of illegal aliens accessing state services in “sanctuary” states, which defy federal immigration law by harboring illegal aliens and barring local law enforcement agencies from participating in immigration enforcement operations.
A recent analysis from the Economic Policy Innovation Center projects that by 2034, benefits provided to illegal aliens and their children will top $177 billion at the federal level alone.
In Washington state the threat of non-citizen voting is even higher, as all residents are able to enroll in state health and dental insurance programs regardless of legal residency status.
Election integrity organizations and conservative think tanks, including the America First Policy Institute, warn that automatic voter registration “highly increases the likelihood that non-citizens will be registered to vote.”
Concerns are far from unfounded in Washington, as a report from The Center Square found that scores of illegal aliens have been registered to vote in the state, oftentimes against their will. The report notes that in December of 2018, an immigration attorney wrote to the Department of Licensing (DOL) that “many of our clients are unwittingly getting registered to vote when they get their IDs, apply or receive any state benefits.”
A year later, an employee for the Kittitas County Auditor warned the secretary of state’s office that it was “very discouraging to know that DOL personnel are assisting in the process of registering NON-Citizens.”
In 2020, DOL and SOS were notified that a Chinese student was registered to vote and had received a ballot in the mail, despite his host family requesting that the state remove his name from the voter rolls, The Center Square reported.
“Ultimately, each state is responsible for voter registration and ensuring that only U.S. citizens are registered to vote and voting. Yet only some states have laws reiterating this prohibition on non-citizen voting and establishing penalties, and there is currently a major loophole in federal and state law that opens the door wide to non-citizen voting,” the America First Policy Institute noted.
“The loophole is that proof of U.S. citizenship is often not required in order to register to vote, only an unproven, unverified attestation of one’s citizenship status, and there is no federal or state enforcement mechanism to ensure states are checking citizenship status.”