In the 2024 Kentucky election, we would encourage you to vote yes on Amendment 1. This amendment would prevent local governments and the state government from permitting visitors and illegal immigrants from voting in our state and local elections.
We have seen how, in other states, Democrats have desired to expand the franchise (legal voting access) to non-citizens. They have attempted to do this in New York City, for example. A judge later shot down that effort. Judge Paul Wooten in New York stated, "We determine that this local law was enacted in violation of the New York State Constitution and Municipal Home Rule Law." So, the courts in New York state interpret their constitution as only providing for citizens to vote and don't want to say that it permits something that is in a grey legal area.
As Ballotpedia stated, “In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed a law prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections, including elections for U.S. house, U.S. Senate, and Presidential elections. This does not apply to elections at the state and local levels. Sixteen municipalities across the country allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections, as of December 2023. Eleven were located in Maryland; three were located in Vermont; and two were located in California.”
The Republican-majority state legislature wanted to get ahead of the game on this issue before Democrats get the opportunity to establish non-citizen voting in Kentucky. As State Rep. Michael Meredith put it,
"We’re seeking to be proactive with this amendment because what we have seen in other states is that local governments have, in some cases, changed their local charters under similar constitutional language in those states to allow non-citizens to vote in the elections in their jurisdictions. We seek to get ahead of this before this does happen, potentially, in the Commonwealth of Kentucky."
We agree with their decision and ask you to vote for Amendment 1 on November 5th, 2024. The text of the amendment itself that we would be adding to our state Constitution says:
"No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to vote in this state"
Why is this important? In terms of the political landscape in Kentucky, Democrats aim to sustain their rule in local cities for the sake of their career politicians. Some of them see non-citizen voting as a way to accomplish that goal.
Now, some people have suggested that Democrats might want to secure noncitizen voting for the major Democrat-majority cities in Kentucky such as Lexington and Louisville. However, this amendment battle is about much more than that. We should keep in mind that Henderson, northern Kentucky (near Cincinnati), and Bowling Green are also Democrat strongholds in the Commonwealth.
The Democrats could also use noncitizen voters in order to capture battleground areas for state and local elections, such as Owensboro, Berea, and Richmond.
In Kentucky, only about 24% of voting Democrat state legislators approved of Amendment 1 to go for a vote by the public, while 100% of voting Republican state legislators approved Amendment 1. The somewhat partisan nature of the legislation reveals that many Democrats either do not view this amendment as being needed or desire for noncitizens to vote in future state and local elections.
If we passed Amendment 1, we wouldn't be the only state that outlawed noncitizen voting. According to Ballotpedia, in 43 states, "constitutional language discussing citizenship says who can vote, “every citizen” or “all citizens,” but does not state that noncitizens cannot vote.” However, the states of Ohio, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Arizona already ban noncitizens from voting in all elections—state, local, and federal, and the state Constitutions of Colorado, Alabama, and Florida since 2020 have implied that noncitizens cannot legally vote, by stating that only citizens may vote. If we pass Amendment 1, then we would join those states.
In this November 2024 election, Iowa, Idaho, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oklahoma are also having similar or the same constitutional amendments on the ballot. Given the past performance of such ballot initiatives in other states, with around 62% to 79% voting yes, we can reasonably expect that several or all of those states will also ban noncitizens from being legally permitted to vote in their states.
So, the total picture for election security against noncitizens voting in our state and local elections looks like this, on the state level:
A vote for Amendment 1 is a vote for election security. Don't let foreign governments, cartels, and Democrat operatives (or even Republican operatives) try to get illegal immigrants and visitors to vote and change the outcome of local and state races for public office.
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