For all the hand-wringing they did over “Russian interference” in the 2016 election, Democrats couldn’t give a rip about foreign nationals voting in local U.S. elections.
In a subtle move that didn’t attract national media attention, the city of Frederick, Maryland, took another step toward legalizing noncitizen voting for its municipal elections last week. According to The Frederick News-Post, the locality’s charter review committee reaffirmed plans to recommend the city permit residents “to vote in city elections regardless of their immigration status.” The city government estimates there are approximately 6,400 voting age noncitizens residing in Frederick. That’s nearly 8 percent of Frederick’s population of 82,175 — a sizeable portion of potential votes. It’s an even more significant number when you consider that only 10,546 residents voted in Frederick’s municipal election in 2021.
The committee previously recommended allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections during an Oct. 5 meeting. In that meeting, the body axed the proposal’s original language specifying that only individuals who are in the country legally would be permitted to vote.
Here is the original proposal as reported by the Post:
The City shall explore extending voting rights to documented noncitizen residents (that is with an identified address in the city and living in the country legally: i.e., with a Green card, visa, tax identification number or work permit, etc.). This will require the city to develop a separate voting roll of such persons.
The committee decided to remove “’explore extending voting’ and recommend
