New York City has just passed a bill that will allow illegals to vote in all of their local elections:
NEWSMAX – Noncitizens in New York City would gain the right to vote in municipal elections under a measure approved Thursday by the City Council that would give access to the ballot box to 800,000 green card holders and so-called Dreamers.
Only a potential veto from Mayor Bill de Blasio stood in the way of the measure becoming law, but the Democrat has said he would not veto it. It’s unclear whether the bill might face legal challenges.
The Council’s vote was a historic moment for an effort that had long languished.
Councilman Francisco Moya, whose family hails from Ecuador, choked up as he spoke in support of the bill.
“This is for my beautiful mother who will be able to vote for her son,” said Moya, while joining the session by video with his immigrant mother at his side.
More than a dozen communities across the United States already allow noncitizens to cast ballots in local elections, including 11 towns in Maryland and two in Vermont. But New York City is the largest place by far to give voting rights to noncitizens.
Noncitizens still wouldn’t be able to vote for president or members of Congress in federal races, or in the state elections that pick the governor, judges and legislators.
The city’s move could enflame the national debate over voting rights, particularly among some who wrongly assert that rampant fraud by noncitizens has taken place in federal elections.
Last year, Alabama, Colorado and Florida adopted rules that would preempt any attempts to pass laws like the one in New York City. Arizona and North Dakota already had prohibitions on the books.
“The bill we’re doing today will have national repercussions,” said the council’s majority leader, Laurie Cumbo, a Democrat who opposed the bill. She expressed concern that the measure could diminish the influence of African American voters.
“National repercussions” is what this is all about. Democrats want this to become an inflamed national issue in order to give them momentum to grant amnesty to illegals nationwide so they can expand their voting base. It’s all about new voters and has nothing to do with the rule of law.
I would imagine that this will be challenged by a resident of New York. Given that this is a local law, I’m not sure if it would stay within the state court system or could end up in the federal courts. Either way, I don’t see how this can stand unless an activist court upholds it. Seems to me it violates the state constitution, which says that voters must be residents, which I assume to mean legal residents.