New York - Liberal politicians in New York City want to give immigrants who are not yet citizens the right to vote. The City Council, which is composed overwhelmingly of Democrats, is considering a law that would allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, explained Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.
"It's not a joke; it's a blatant attempt to begin securing the future for progressive government," Weber said. "The Council tried before to get the law passed, but was confronted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and backed down. But, the current Mayor, Bill DeBlasio, who was described by liberal TV host Jon Stewart as "the socialist Sasquatch," is reportedly amenable to letting non-citizens vote."
It is estimated that there are some one million non-citizens living in New York City. "That's more than enough to boost DeBlasio's chances to win a second term-especially for a mayor whose first term has been fraught with controversy and whose popularity is waning. But the right to vote is the distinct province of citizens and it is the height of cynicism to diminish its value for personal political gain."
Weber noted that the proposed law would allow non-citizens to vote only in municipal elections. "But it provides no mechanism for ensuring that voters will stick to the rules. Both citizens and non-citizens would be using the same polling places and the same ballot boxes. There would be nothing to stop non-citizens from casting ballots for those seeking House and Senate seats or from voting for the next president. It would facilitate voter fraud on a massive scale in state and federal elections. And, that is why it should be of concern not just to those who live in New York City but also among those of us in the rest of the nation."
Those who support the proposed law claim that residents who are not yet citizens are unfairly disenfranchised. They say that they are a large and important part of the population and that they are unfairly "unrepresented" because they cannot vote. But in a recent editorial by Tom Wrobleski, political editor of the Staten Island Advance, he cited a 2014 report by the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership at CUNY [City University of New York]. It pointed out that the lack of representation is only temporary until citizenship is achieved.
"The immigrants who built America came here with a desire to participate in the democratic process, not to dismantle it," Weber pointed out. "New Americans are welcomed when they first arrive and they are encouraged to take the path to citizenship that their predecessors took. These efforts to disrupt the process is an outrage. They make a mockery of our nation's history and our future."
