A lawsuit filed by seven D.C. voters represented by an anti-immigration group against the city’s Board of Elections is headed to federal court as the plaintiffs try to stop the District from permitting noncitizens to vote in local elections.
The suit — initially filed in D.C. Superior Court in March but moved last week at the District’s request to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — argues the legislation “dilutes” the votes of citizens and notes that it permits noncitizens to be elected to public office, including as mayor.
“Noncitizens do not have a fundamental right to vote in the United States,” the suit said. It is seeking an injunction preventing the board from registering noncitizen voters, counting their votes or spending funds to implement the legislation.
A spokesperson for the D.C. Board of Elections declined to comment, saying the board does not comment on pending litigation. The D.C. attorney general’s office also declined to comment.
The plaintiffs are represented by the D.C.-based Immigration Reform Law Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for limiting immigration. Christopher Hajec, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said they were “confident of our position whatever the forum.”
“It violates a fundamental tenet of democratic self-rule to diminish the power of citizens to govern themselves in any part of the United States — much less the nation’s capital,” he said of the noncitizens’ voting law.
Hall, who lost in a landslide to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) last year, said noncitizen voting is not a partisan issue, but a “power grab” that discriminates against citizens.
“It is not a Republican issue because this law could affect all of us,” Hall said.
The legislation allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections was enacted without Bowser’s signature — though all the city’s legislation goes to Congress for review before becoming law.
House Republicans led an effort to block the legislation, and 42 Democrats joined them in voting to reject it, with some noting they viewed the right to vote as “fundamental” to U.S. citizenship. But the resolution died in a Senate committee, allowing the noncitizens voting bill to become law.
Other jurisdictions in the Washington area already allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, including Takoma Park, Md. At least seven states, including Ohio and Florida, have banned the practice.
Jose Barrios, who leads the DC Latino Caucus — a Democratic group that advocated for the legislation — said their support for the bill was based on a basic premise: that all people impacted by local laws should “have a voice in who enacts those laws.”
Noncitizens pay taxes, run businesses and send their children to public schools, he said. He described the argument that allowing noncitizens to vote would “dilute” the votes of American citizens as a mirror of efforts throughout history to block expanding the franchise to various demographic groups.
“The same argument has been rehashed every time that we wanted to expand voting rights, whether it was for Black people, for Brown people or for women,” Barrios said. “It has always been an argument, about diluting the voter franchise, by people who feel like they have something to lose. We think that expanding democracy is a good thing — it is not a bad thing.”
Barrios said the next stage of the group’s advocacy will be education — making sure that those who will be newly eligible to vote in municipal elections know how to register. A D.C. Council committee has proposed $1.4 million in the fiscal 2024 budget, which will be voted on this month, to implement the law — funding that includes resources for outreach to residents.