2 weeks Ago By Adam Edelman
Voters approved Republican-backed constitutional amendments designed to make it clear that only American citizens can vote in elections in all eight states they appeared on the ballot, NBC News projects. Clear majorities of voters in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin passed constitutional amendments making it explicitly illegal for noncitizens to vote in state and local elections — even though it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in elections in those states and at the federal level and even though it rarely happens. GOP-controlled legislatures in those eight states — where lawmakers control the constitutional amendment process, not citizens — referred those proposed amendments to this year’s ballots.
Election experts have warned that the measures were one of several ways by which Republicans at the national and state levels have sought to drive the unsubstantiated narrative that noncitizens are voting in large numbers in ways that could affect the outcomes of elections up and down the ballot. No state constitution allows noncitizens to vote. Outside of the eight states with the ballot measures, certain cities and municipalities in three states, as well as Washington, D.
C., have allowed noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Supporters of the ballot measures have argued that they are a way to get ahead of any potential problems related to noncitizen voting.
The amendments passed in Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin will modify existing language in those states’ constitutions to state that “only” citizens can vote. Current language states that “every citizen” or “all citizens” can do so. In Idaho and Kentucky, the amendments will insert language in those states’ constitutions stating that “no person who is not a citizen of the United States” can vote.
Passage of the amendments marks the latest chapter of Republican's ongoing efforts to put unfounded claims of noncitizen voting at the center of a broader political strategy. Former President Donald Trump has long made false claims that noncitizen voting is resulting in widespread fraud and that Democrats have helped migrants enter the country to cast those ballots . The Republican National Committee’s election integrity campaign also highlighted noncitizen voting as a danger that it warned could be a source of widespread fraud in the 2024 election.
In addition, GOP officials in several states purged or tried to purge their voter rolls with the goal of removing noncitizens, while House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pushed legislation that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote..
