Voters in the swing state of Wisconsin will have to make a different choice after casting their ballots for president in November: whether foreigners should be explicitly excluded from voting.
At the bottom of the ballot is a statewide referendum drafted by Republican lawmakers asking for permission to amend the state constitution to clearly ban non-U.S. citizens from voting in elections held in the state.
The move was part of a GOP push across the country and was spurred by municipalities in a handful of states allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections. North Dakota, Alabama, Florida, Colorado, Ohio and Louisiana have all passed the measure in recent years, and eight others have it on the ballot, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.
Republicans say they are trying to protect election integrity as immigrants flood the southern border. Democrats and other opponents say the amendment has no practical effect — no Wisconsin municipalities allow nonresidents to vote — and is instead intended to draw conservatives to the polls and stoke anger against foreigners in the United States stir up.
“There’s no problem with noncitizens voting,” said Jeff Mandell, an attorney at Law Forward, a nonprofit that advocates for voter rights. “It’s the definition of a solution in search of a problem.”
According to the Pew Research Center, more than 25 million people living in the US were not US citizens in 2020. This included approximately 12 million permanent residents, as well as 2 million temporary residents who visited the US as students, tourists, foreign workers, and foreign officials. Pew’s figure also included about 11 million migrants living in the U.S. illegally.
A 1996 federal law already makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections.
No state constitution explicitly allows non-residents to vote, and many states have laws prohibiting them from voting in statewide races. State data also shows that voting by noncitizens is rare, although Republicans have emphasized voter registration reviews that identified potential noncitizens.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in August that more than 6,500 potential noncitizens have been removed from the state’s voter rolls since 2021. Ohio Secretary of State Frank La Rose also said in August that he had referred 138 apparent noncitizens who voted in a recent election for prosecution. And Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has said that 3,251 people previously identified by the federal government as noncitizens have been deactivated from the state’s voter registration lists.
Multiple municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont, as well as the District of Columbia, allow non-residents to vote in some local elections, such as school boards and municipal elections. Republicans fear that more jurisdictions will follow suit.
The Wisconsin Constitution currently stipulates that every U.S. citizen is a valid voter. The amendment would revise that language to say only American citizens can vote.
State Rep. Tyler August, the amendment’s lead sponsor, said Wisconsin Republicans want to make it “crystal clear” that out-of-state residents cannot vote in the state.
“While (the state constitution) says that every American citizen can vote, we want to make sure that can’t be interpreted as every American citizen plus all those other people,” August said. He acknowledged that noncitizens voting in other states were the driving force behind the amendment.
But August rejected arguments that the amendment discriminates against foreign nationals and is intended to draw conservatives to the polls — predicting that Republicans will still stand up for former President Donald Trump “in large numbers.”
“It’s very clear,” August said. “If someone comes here legally and goes through the process and gets them American citizenship, they can vote. It has nothing to do with race or immigration.”
An aide to Republican Sen. Julian Bradley of New Berlin, the amendment’s lead sponsor, referred questions about it to August.
Constitutional amendments in Wisconsin must pass two consecutive legislative sessions and a statewide referendum before they can take effect. Republican lawmakers passed the measure in 2022 and again last year, without a single Democratic vote. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers plays no role in approving constitutional changes.
Data from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission shows that the only organization registered in favor of the amendment this session is Wisconsin Family Action, a conservative group that says it is committed to defending marriage, the family and religious liberty. Several organizations have registered in opposition, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the League of Women Voters.
More than 30 organizations have also signaled their opposition, including Law Forward, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera. In a September press release, the groups called the amendment a power grab that encourages discrimination and could lead to more anti-immigrant measures.
“Not only is this statewide ballot question deliberately confusing, but it will cause real harm,” the coalition said. “The proposed change in voting rights from ‘every’ citizen to ‘just’ citizens reduces all of our voting rights. We urge Wisconsinites to vote no to preserve the constitutional guarantee that protects our freedom to vote from further violation.”
