Editorials

Voting by noncitizens has been clearly identified as a problem in many of the United States although disagreement is expressed over its magnitude.

Some Americans argue that alien voting is a nonexistent problem or dismiss reported cases of noncitizen voting as unimportant because, they claim, there are no cases in which noncitizens "intentionally" registered to vote or voted "while knowing they were ineligible."

Even if the latter claim were true, every vote cast by a non-citizen, whether an illegal alien or a resident alien legally in the country, dilutes or cancels the vote of a citizen and thus disenfranchises him or her, said Hans A. von Spakovsky who served as a Federal Election Commission member two years.

Spakovsky, who before that was counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, adds the claim "is not true."

Evidence is indisputable that aliens, both legal and illegal, are registering and voting in federal, state and local elections, he added. After a mayor's race in Compton, Calif., for example, aliens testified under oath in court they voted in the election.

In that case, a candidate elected to the city council was permanently disqualified from holding public office in California for soliciting noncitizens to register and vote. It was discovered non-citizens registered and voted in the election only because the outcome was close, and was contested by the incumbent mayor.

"Noncitizen voting is likely growing at the same rate as the alien population in the United States," von Spakovsky said, "But because of deficiencies in state law and failure of federal agencies to comply with federal law, there are almost no procedures in place that allow election officials to detect, deter and prevent non-citizens from registering and voting."

Officials largely depend on an "honor system" that expects aliens to follow the law, he said, adding there are numerous cases showing failure of this system. Many aliens apparently believe the potential benefit of registering far outweighs the chances of being caught and prosecuted. And many prosecutors see it as a "victimless and nonviolent" crime that is not a priority.

Americans may disagree on many areas of immigration policy, von Spakovsky observed, "But not on the basic principle that only citizens -- and not noncitizens, whether legally present or not -- should be able to vote in elections. Unless and until immigrants become citizens, they must respect the laws that bar noncitizens from voting."

Some practical, straightforward solutions are suggested.

Anyone who registers to vote should be required to provide proof of citizenship. Election officials should have access to E-Verify, the database used by U.S. employers to check citizenship status of prospective employees, to help determine registrants' citizenship status.

State Department of Motor Vehicles should not allow non-citizens to register to vote when they apply for drivers' licenses and courts should notify election officials when individuals summoned for jury duty from voter registration lists are excused for noncitizenship.

Requiring that our laws -- all of our laws -- be complied with requires no more of an alien that it does a citizen, von Spakovsky said.

"It is a violation of both state and federal law for immigrants who are not citizens to vote in state and federal elections," he declared. "These violations effectively disenfranchise legitimate voters whose votes are diluted, and they must be curtailed."

Every American citizen should agree. Election officials have an obligation to enforce these laws, and also to implement registration and election procedures that do not allow those laws to be bypassed or ignored.

Lax enforcement of election laws has the potential of changing the outcome of closely contested rates that affect how all Americans are governed. This should be totally unacceptable.

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