North Carolina Passes Citizens Only Voting Amendment for November Ballot

A sizable percentage of North Carolina Democrats serving in the General Assembly would like see noncitizens cancel out the votes of legal American citizens.

As goes North Carolina, so goes America? Apparently, elected officials serving in one of the country’s major political parties favor voter suppression techniques targeting legal citizens who might vote differently than illegal aliens.

On June 27, the General Assembly passed a proposed “Citizens Only” amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that voters will have the opportunity approve on the November ballot. An updated vote tally in the House and Senate is available here.

As Hayden Ludwig noted for Restoration News, of the roughly 50 million legal and illegal aliens living in the United States, about 20 million are voting-age adults. Of those, 5–13 percent illegally register to vote and cast a ballot each election cycle. That works out to about 2.7 million people, far and away enough to swing a close election to Joe Biden. Survey data shows non-citizens vote 80–20 percent for Democrats over Republicans.

Some States Have Fought Back Against Non-Citizen Voting

Since 2018, North Dakota, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio approved “Citizen Only” ballot measures similar to what will be on the ballot this coming November in North Carolina, South Carolina, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.

Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Virginia already have constitutional provisions that only legal American citizens can vote in elections.

Paul Jacob is the chairman of Americans for Citizen Voting, a ballot integrity group spearheading the ballot initiatives. Strong majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents favor the concept of citizen voting. Yet a radical segment of the Democratic Party will work to either block or reject the initiatives. Jacob points out that since Republicans lacked supermajorities in the Georgia and Texas legislatures, Democrats could muster sufficient opposition to stall the initiatives.

Can’t Beat Em—Join Em?

“When Democrats can’t block these proposals, most of them typically come on board because they know they are popular,” Jacob said in an interview with Restoration News. He went on:

It’s only on the far left that they genuinely like the idea of noncitizen voting. Maybe it’s this idea of expanding democracy that has them punch drunk. But there’s a point beyond which you shouldn’t go. The Chinese ambassador should not be voting in Washington D.C. even if he resides there. Some on the far left might also have this idea that could get the votes of noncitizens, so they want them.

Americans for Citizen Voting has voting data showing 75 percent of Americans support having only U.S. citizens vote in elections. A study from Just Facts shows that anywhere from 10 to 27 percent of noncitizens are illegally registered to vote.

That’s why we need continued citizen activism at the state level. Federal law makes it clear that citizenship is required to vote in a federal election. But unless a state’s constitution declares that only citizens can vote, a loophole exists for noncitizens to impact election outcomes.

The North Carolina Democrats in the General Assembly who voted against the proposed amendment:

House

Rep. John Autry (D—Mecklenburg) 

Rep. Amber Baker (D—Forsyth)

Rep. Mary Belk (D—Mecklenburg) 

Rep. Laura Budd (D—Mecklenburg)

Rep. Becky Carney (D—Mecklenburg)

Rep. Maria Cervania (D—Wake)

Rep. Sarah Crawford (D—Wake)

Rep. Rosa Gill (D—Wake)

Rep. Pricey Harrison (D—Guilford)

Rep. Marvin Lucas (D—Cumberland)

Rep. Marcia Morey (D—Durham)

Rep. Renee Price (D—Caswell, Orange)

Senate

Senator Val Applewhite (D—Cumberland)

Senator Graig Meyer (D—Caswell, Orange, Person)

Senator Natalie Murdock (D—Chatham, Durham)

Senator Gladys Robinson (D—Guilford)