Democrat lawmakers in Massachusetts proposed legislation to allow foreign nationals on green cards the right to vote in municipal elections.
According to The National Desk, Bill H.671 would allow non-citizen voters in the state of Massachusetts to vote in elections for “mayor, school committee, city council, town council, board of selectmen, select board elections, a school committee referendum, a local ballot referendum or other municipal elections.”
Democrats in both Massachusetts legislative chambers sponsored bills to allow foreign nationals to vote in municipal elections.
Democrat legislators in Massachusetts are looking to give foreign nationals on green cards the right to vote in municipal elections. https://t.co/6GMtwX1rBG
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 13, 2023
Breitbart noted which state lawmakers proposed the legislation:
The bills, all of which must go before House and Senate committees on election laws, are being sponsored by Democrat legislators like James Eldridge, Samantha Montaño, and Mike Connolly.
“Immigrants are essential to our communities … many are on the path to citizenship but lack the ability to apply, but they need to have a say in how public services are funded and governed,” an official with the group MassVOTE told legislators during a hearing on the bills last month.
The outlet added that other New England states, like Connecticut and Rhode Island, have pushed legislation to allow legal immigrants and illegal aliens the right to vote.
Another bill proposed in Massachusetts, Bill H.670, would eliminate the state’s age requirement for voting.
The National Desk has more details:
Bill H.670 would completely eliminate Massachusetts’s age requirement for voting, according to the Boston Herald. The bill also takes aim at students in “elementary and secondary education” with the creation of after-school programming which would educate students on voting and encourage them to participate.
Speaking at a hearing for the bill, Rutgers University Childhood Studies Professor John Wall reasoned that if adults with “just plain stupidity” are allowed vote, children should be allowed to vote as well.
“Only with suffrage are social groups able to hold their governments truly accountable to their needs. It is incorrect and discriminatory to apply to children the need for voting capacities when we don’t apply such capacities to adults. All adults have the right to vote, even if they have severe dementia, cognitive disabilities, illiteracy, or just plain stupidity,” Wall said.
Similar legislation was recently passed in Brattleboro, Vermont, where 16- and 17-year-olds can now vote in local elections.
