BOISE — Idaho voters to decide on constitutional measure designed to keep non-citizens from voting.
- Federal law already prohibits non-citizen voting
(Verbatim of story that aired is below.)
The State of Idaho has put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would make it illegal for non-citizens to vote.
Problem is, it is already illegal at the federal level for non citizens to vote.
And Idaho’s constitution also states that non citizens cannot vote.
So what’s the point?
Depends on who you ask.
The Idaho Secretary of State says In a world where fear of illegal immigrants and voter fraud are being stoked into a frenzy, House joint resolution 5 makes sense.
“I think right now elections is more in focus than it ever has been,” said Idaho secretary of state Phil McGrane. “As a county clerk I’ve flipped a coin on multiple instances to determine some small local races that’s how close some of these elections can be and we want to make sure people do have confidence”.
So, I wanted to know how serious a problem this is in the gem state. Is non citizen voting leading to unfair elections in idaho?
“Reporter: Name one where that happened. Where it’s actually flipped the outcome of an election. McGrane: I can’t name one.”
And when asked if this amendment will be closing any big loopholes are resulting in substantial change…
"So it won’t substantially change our process," explains McGrane, “Already you have to be a us citizen to be able to register to vote. This is an exclamation point.”
But how expensive is that exclamation point?
Ballot measures can cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
And Dr. Justin Clardie, Political Science professor at NNU says increasing any requirements to meet citizenship can sometimes have a disenfranchising effect.
“Extra proof of citizenship whatever that might look like might restrict some people’s access to voting if they can’t get those records for whatever reason,” said Clardie.
But in this atmosphere of non-citizen mistrust, Dr. Clardie says ask yourself one thing. "There’s the question is this the best use of government’s efforts and the peoples efforts or are there more pressing issues we should be worried about.”
