In 2021, Democrats in Vermont granted non-citizens the right to vote in municipal elections. Republicans filed lawsuits and the legal battle went all the way to the state’s highest court.
Now the Vermont Supreme Court has upheld the measure.
The Associated Press reported:
Vermont Supreme Court rules in favor of noncitizen voting
Noncitizen residents may continue to vote in municipal elections in Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday, stating that such voting in local elections doesn’t violate the state constitution.
In its decision on an appeal the higher court upheld a lower court ruling, dismissing the claim.
“The statute allowing noncitizens to vote in local Montpelier elections does not violate Chapter II, § 42 because that constitutional provision does not apply to local elections,” the Supreme Court wrote.
In 2021, the Democrat-controlled Vermont Legislature approved two separate bills to change the municipal charters of Montpelier and Winooski, the most diverse community in the state, to allow legal residents who are not U.S. citizens to vote in local elections. Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the measures, but the Legislature overrode his vetoes.
The Republican National Committee filed lawsuits against the two Vermont cities asking judges to declare noncitizen voting unconstitutional and lost those challenges. Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in federal elections, including races for president, vice president, Senate or House of Representatives.
Montpelier and Winooski are among more than a dozen communities in a handful of states — including New York City, and a number of towns in Maryland — that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. Seven states, including Ohio, have measures banning noncitizen voting in local elections, according to the group Americans for Citizen Voting.
The left is very good at playing the long game and that’s exactly what this is. How long will it take for Vermont liberals to insist that non-citizens should be able to vote in national elections?
If illegal immigrants voted Republican, Democrats would be currently building the wall by hand.