The Sconi

The Wisconsin State Assembly on Thursday passed the Only Citizens Voting Amendment, which would stipulate that only U.S. citizens are permitted to participate in elections in Wisconsin, drawing praise from a voting advocacy group. 

It passed the Assembly with bipartisan support after clearing the state Senate last month.

"Wisconsin is leading the way in election integrity by protecting the votes of Citizens of the United States,” Chris Arps, president of Americans for Citizen Voting, told The Sconi. “We encourage all states to follow their lead.”

Senate Joint Resolution 32 was presented as a proposal to amend the Constitution of Wisconsin regarding citizenship being required to vote, according to a Wisconsin legislative website.

The resolution was sponsored by Sen. Roger Roth and Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke. 

It passed the State Assembly by a vote of 60-35, with 4 paired votes. One Democrat, Steve Doyle, joined the Republicans in supporting the resolution. It previously passed the Senate in January, with a  21-12 vote, the resolution's history shows.

A couple of hurdles remain before the resolution would become law. The Legislature has to revisit it after the November election and pass it again. If that happens, it would go on a statewide ballot as a referendum.

In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which prohibited noncitizens from voting in federal elections for president, the U.S. House or U.S. Senate. The law did not address noncitizens voting in state or local elections, according to an article on the Cornell University website.

Legal language is not as clear in some states. For example, the Maryland Constitution states that “every citizen of the United States, of the age of 18 years or upwards, who is a resident of the State as of the time for the closing of registration next preceding the election, shall be entitled to vote in the ward or election district in which the citizen resides at all elections to be held in this State.” Several municipalities in Maryland have subsequently extended voting rights to noncitizens as well, according to a Maryland governmental website.

Several other states do not have clear language specifying that only citizens are eligible to vote, and note that several municipalities across the country have moved to allow noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections, an analysis by Ballotpedia shows. Ballotpedia reports that some states, including Colorado, have passed amendments clarifying the citizen voting language. Colorado’s Amendment 76, also called the Citizenship Requirement for Voting Initiative, was approved as a constitutional amendment by the state’s voters in November 2020. It changed language that “every citizen” can vote in Colorado to “only a citizen” can vote. The Amendment won 63% of the vote.