The Fifteenth Amendment protects the rights of citizens of the United States to vote. It does not allow for non-citizens to vote. The Nineteenth Amendment allows women who are citizens of the United States to vote. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that non-citizens have the right to vote. The fact that non-citizens are counted in the census is the result of a court case–not a law passed by any legislature.
On Friday, The Federalist posted an article illustrating how one state is not complying with the Constitution in its voting practices.
The article reports:
The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles has directed its employees to process the voter registration of those with “unknown citizenship” status, simply requiring that they claim eligibility, The Federalist has learned.
“If you don’t prove that you’re not a U.S. citizen, then you will be asked if you want to self-attest to being a citizen, and they will assist you with registering to vote,” Republican state Rep. Ed Diehl told The Federalist.
Early last month, Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek paused Oregon’s “motor voter” program as the state began a cursory investigation into how the system had registered more than 1,500 potential noncitizens to vote, as The Federalist previously reported.
In response to this discovery, Diehl met with state DMV leaders on Oct. 21. He said the DMV has reverted to only registering voters with a form that relies on attestation to prove citizenship.
“Instead of being optional — a side track basically for voter registration — it’s right now the only way,” Diehl said.
Though the “motor voter” process that Kotek paused allowed more than 1,500 individuals to vote without proof of citizenship, that process theoretically required some level of documentary proof of citizenship, in contrast with the current registration method Diehl described.
The article concludes:
After discovering noncitizens on the voter rolls, Kerns [Griffin-Valade’s (Oregon’s Secretary of State) Communications Director Laura Kerns] said the secretary of state took steps to hire a “motor voter oversight” position in the Oregon Elections Division” to establish a process with the DMV of “regular data checks and review processes” with the elections division and update administrative rules.
Jeff Eager, former mayor of Bend, Oregon, who writes on state politics, told The Federalist he has been trying to obtain public records regarding the “motor voter” program placing noncitizens on the rolls. The DMV postponed releasing records until after the election.
“It looks to me like they’re playing games with the response by continually delaying it,” Eager said. “The concern here is that it’s the tip of the iceberg, because you have the majority of voters in Oregon having registered to vote without providing proof of citizenship at all.”
It’s time to require all states to comply with the law limiting voting in federal elections to citizens or their Representatives and Senators should not be seated and their Electoral College votes not counted.