The House of Representatives advanced a bill Thursday to repeal a Washington, D.C. law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections. A whopping 52 Democrats joined Republicans on the measure, with 143 Democrats voting against it, for a final 262 to 143 vote. The D.C. law was passed by the progressive city council in 2022 and recently survived a court challenge earlier this year.
It would, of course, be crazy for an undocumented person to attach their name to a public and transparent document like a voter registration document…we were not able to find any evidence that there were any undocumented people doing so,' said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
It's the latest effort in a wider crackdown on voting security that House GOP leaders are mounting roughly six months before the November 2024 elections. The House-wide vote on D.C.'s local law comes on the same day that a key House committee is poised to advance a bill to heighten enforcement and penalties for undocumented people who vote in federal elections.