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<\/a>Voters packed the Vigo County Annex in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday, Nov. 5, 2018, during the final day of early voting. (Austen Leake\/Tribune-Star via AP)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Stephen Dinan – The Washington Times<\/p>\n
House Democrats voted Friday to defend localities that allow illegal immigrants to vote in their elections, turning back a GOP attempt to discourage the practice.<\/p>\n
The vote marks a stunning reversal from just six months ago, when the chamber \u2014 then under GOP control \u2014 voted to decry illegal immigrant voting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are prepared to open up the political process and let all of the people come in,\u201d Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and hero of the civil rights movement, told colleagues as he led opposition to the GOP measure.<\/p>\n
The 228-197 vote came as part of a broader debate on Democrats\u2019 major legislative priority this year, HR 1, the \u201cFor the People Act,\u201d which includes historic expansions of voter registration and access, as well as a major rewrite of campaign finance laws.<\/p>\n
The measure would have had no practical effect even if it had passed. Illegal immigrants \u2014 and indeed noncitizens as a whole \u2014 are not legally able to participate in federal elections.<\/p>\n
But Republicans had hoped to send a message to localities such as San Francisco, where noncitizens are now allowed to vote in school board elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sounds like I\u2019m making it up. What kind of government would cancel the vote of its own citizens, and replace it with noncitizens?\u201d said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Texas Republican.<\/p>\n
He pointed to last year\u2019s vote, when 49 Democrats joined the GOP to decry noncitizen voting.<\/p>\n
On Friday just six Democrats voted in favor.<\/p>\n
A 1996 federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but there is no prohibition on localities, and indeed a number of jurisdictions allow it, to some extent.<\/p>\n
Famously liberal Takoma Park, a small jurisdiction in Maryland, has for several decades allowed noncitizens, including illegal immigrants, to vote in local elections.<\/p>\n
Experts say as many as 40 states or territories allowed noncitizen voting dating back to the nation\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n
San Francisco in July began allowing noncitizens to vote in school board elections \u2014 though they must be parents or legal guardians of students.<\/p>\n