In Maryland, non-citizen voting has recently been proposed by some local political leaders, such as in the City of College Park.  While the noble-sounding argument for this idea is to welcome foreign residents more fully into the life of the local community, its actual effect is to risk a serious threat to the well-being and order of good government in many ways.  And besides, there are other, more rational, ways to welcome foreign residents through such means as voluntary and community services.

Traditionally, voting has always been a special function of adult citizens who have the serious interest and knowledge to make informed collective decisions for all in society. For this reason, foreign born residents must become “naturalized” citizens to qualify for voting.  Criteria for this includes a period of time, oath of loyalty, and formal testing to assure adequate knowledge of the US constitution and the basic institutions and principles of American government.  In addition, they must demonstrate sufficient knowledge and understanding of the English language.

Opening up voting to non-citizens would therefore remove the normal checks of the naturalization process.  It would subject the whole voting system to foreign aliens who may have little knowledge of English, and perhaps only a temporary or casual interest in well-being of the permanent community involved.  Such non-citizen voting might even invite the participation of illegal aliens, and otherwise dilute the effect of legal citizen decision-making in various critical elections.

Voting by natural born US citizens carries with it a certain assumption that the individual has a sufficient level of loyalty, knowledge, and assimilation into the American culture, due to the citizen’s education in youth, which is mostly subjected to some type of mandatory American schooling.  Non-native citizens are likewise qualified through naturalization procedures, which carry qualification criteria that assures a similar knowledge and loyalty as well.

Although the current press for non-citizen voting is limited to local municipal elections, opening up such voting at this level would only promote a movement for similar non-citizen voting at higher levels as well.  And, even in local elections, non-citizen voting would logically create conflict and risk of voting outside this limited domain.   Finally, non-citizen voting at any level, state, federal or local, invites voter fraud due to manipulation, abuse, and control of elections by self-interested politicians and candidates who seek to prey off the fragile status of many in the local alien community.   In sum, non-citizen voting is a bad idea.