Only citizens can vote. Why amend the Idaho Constitution? • Idaho Capital Sun

Jaclyn Kettler, a political scientist at Boise State University, said assurances about electoral processes have raised questions and concerns about whether “a constitutional amendment like this is really necessary.”

“There's a debate here about, 'Is this a sensible change?' Is it more of a symbolic measure?'” Kettler told the Sun. “But I think that will depend a little bit on people's different perspectives on how effective this constitutional amendment is and how important it is to spell it out explicitly.”

According to a March magazine article, no state allows noncitizens to vote in statewide elections Non-partisan policy center.

According to the organization, municipalities in three states and Washington, D.C. allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections, such as school board elections in San Francisco and municipal elections in cities in Maryland and Vermont.

Idaho is not one of these states. But Idaho's proposed constitutional amendment, Andrus said, would preemptively prevent all localities in Idaho from potentially allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.

McGrane told the Sun that no place in Idaho has considered allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections.

US citizens only can take part in federal elections. Non-citizens voting or registering to vote is illegal under federal law and is subject to prison time and deportation.

When the U.S. House of Representatives tried to prevent a government shutdown in September, House Republicans took part in an emergency funding measure a provision banning non-citizens from voting in federal elections that is already banned, States Newsroom reported.

But the US House of Representatives agreed to an emergency solution Financing measure without this billwhich failed to clear the Senate, States Newsroom reported.

In March, the Idaho House of Representatives and Senate largely agreed House of Representatives Joint Resolution 5with only 12 votes against – all from Democrats – and 91 votes in favor.

The resolution states: “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be eligible to be a qualified voter in any election in the State of Idaho.”

When Andrus introduced the resolution for debate in the House this spring, he told lawmakers that the term “everyone” was not an exclusive term in the section of the Idaho Constitution about citizens who are qualified voters.

“The intent (of the proposed change) is to apply to city, state, federal elections and certain municipalities,” Andrus told the Sun.

McGrane, Idaho's top election official, told the Sun that the intent of the amendment is narrower. The origins of the group pushing for the change, he believes, lay in communities that allowed non-citizens to vote.

“This is not voter fraud or fraud,” McGrane said. “This means that they intentionally opened their elections to allow non-citizens to participate in these elections.”

“It’s just something that hasn’t happened in history,” McGrane added. “I think citizenship is one of those things where people just assume that only citizens vote. “But we have these local elections in other states — not Idaho — that have opened their elections to non-citizens.”

Rubel criticized the legislature's process of approving official arguments for and against the amendment. She said Republican leadership, which holds a majority of seats in a legislative body, is doing so adopted the language in June“prevented us” from exposing the potential impact of private elections to “the public.”

Republican leadership noted at the meeting that the committee-approved language was drafted by staff from the Legislature Services Office, the Legislature's research arm.

Is an Idaho Constitutional Amendment Needed?

Research has found Despite years of false claims from former President Donald Trump, who repeated those claims in his 2024 race for president, there are relatively few cases of voter fraud by non-citizens.

“I think anyone with a national perspective can now see the potential threat to our elections that non-citizens can take part in and vote and change the results,” Andrus told the Sun. “So yeah, that might not be a problem in Idaho now. But this ensures it will never be a problem.”

For Rubel, the House Democratic leader and attorney, the amendment is a “popular issue” that addresses a “legal talking point.”

“This is a great way to fool your voters into thinking you've solved a problem and hope they never find out that the problem never really existed. “That this is a completely made-up problem,” she told the Sun.

Andrus said certain people in other states and parts of the U.S. — whom he declined to name because he doesn't know who “is really behind this” — appear to be intent on “bringing in illegals and allowing them to vote in our country.” “. Choose.”

“And I think that’s wrong. And absolutely not the intent of the Constitution and the Founding Fathers,” Andrus told the Sun. “That is why I believe it is important to protect this right for those citizens who have the right. Because if others are allowed to vote who are not allowed to, then that diminishes the right of those who actually have it and makes it less effective.”

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