Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections. So why is noncitizen voting on the ballot in North Carolina?
People who are not U.S. citizens cannot vote in federal elections. They haven’t been able to for nearly three decades, since Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
And yet, this November, North Carolinians will vote whether to approve a constitutional amendment that emphasizes that “(o)nly a citizen of the United States” can vote in the state.
At first glance, this language on noncitizen voting may seem confusing. But proponents of the ballot measure say the current constitutional language leaves room for North Carolina cities or municipalities to pass ordinances allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, like school board or mayoral races, in the future.
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None have done so, but cities in other states, like San Francisco, Oakland, Washington and Montpelier, Vermont, do allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections.
Opponents of the constitutional amendment say it’s unnecessary, but is instead intended to drive Republican voter turnout and spark unfounded fears of noncitizens illegally voting in North Carolina elections.
What does the state Constitution say, and how would the ballot measure change it?
Article 6 of North Carolina’s Constitution outlines who can and cannot vote.
“Every person born in the United States and every person who has been naturalized, 18 years of age, and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State,” it states.
This article of the state Constitution says voters must be North Carolina residents. Felons also cannot vote until they have restored their citizenship rights after completing their sentences.
In June, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to put the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. To change the state Constitution, a majority of voters must approve.
If approved, the amended Constitution would read:
“Only a citizen of the United States who is 18 years of age and possessing the qualifications set out in this Article, shall be entitled to vote at any election by the people of the State.”
In effect, the amendment would preemptively prevent North Carolina cities or the state legislature from passing a law allowing noncitizens to vote in local or state elections.
North Carolina is one of eight states with a noncitizen voting constitutional amendment question on the ballot in 2024. The others are Wisconsin, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky and South Carolina.
Since 2018, seven states have amended their constitutions to explicitly ban noncitizens from voting in all elections, despite having no cities that previously allowed it. They are North Dakota, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana and Ohio.
Politics and policy: Why push for a constitutional change?
Voter Integrity Project co-founder Jay DeLancy has been pushing to change the North Carolina Constitution to explicitly ban noncitizens from voting since the 2020 election.
He said it’s better to take care of it now to avoid potential future conflict. For example, if a future federal action ended birthright citizenship, the process by which children of undocumented immigrants automatically become citizens, North Carolina’s constitutional language could “muddy the waters,” DeLancy said.
“It’s good to get it right, get the language right,” he said. “That way. It doesn’t go to the courts. ‘You must be a U.S. citizen in order to vote in North Carolina.’ I wish our federal law were that well-defined.”
When DeLancy explained his rationale to lawmakers, he said they were skeptical at first. But one day, North Carolina Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger changed his mind and began pushing for the amendment.
“Honestly, I think the only reason they want to do it is because they made some political calculations and realized, hey, this will rally our base,” DeLancy said. “… If I can get them to pass a law because it’s in their interest to do it, I’m OK with that.”
Americans for Citizen Voting Chairman Paul Jacob is also involved in the effort to pass the amendment.
He wants to separate the issue of legal noncitizen voting, in places like San Francisco, from illegal noncitizen voting fraud. It’s the difference between making new law and enforcing current law, Jacob said, but there’s been a “tremendous amount of conflating” the two.
“The more that this issue is presented in a straightforward, factual way, the more voters will will say, ‘Hey, we want to set that policy,’ and the less they’ll mistake it for this argument that there’s a lot of noise about on noncitizens voting illegally,” he said.
Jacob thinks that voting, in all elections, should be limited to U.S. citizens. He thinks most North Carolinians, of all parties and demographics, agree.
The state Constitution doesn’t specify that exclusivity, he said.
“Every U.S. citizen having a right to vote is a floor, not a ceiling,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that somebody else couldn’t have a right to vote.”
State Rep. Sarah Crawford, D-Wake, is one of 16 Democratic legislators who voted against putting the proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot.
“It’s unnecessary,” she said. “Our Constitution already calls for citizens-only voting. We don’t need a specific amendment, and I believe that this was just a political tool to try to drum up more conservative voters and create fear and confusion about what is happening or is not happening in our elections.”
The amendment also may confuse naturalized citizens by removing the “and every person who has been naturalized” part of the Constitution, Crawford said.
Some Democrats voted to put the amendment on the ballot. Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy professor of the practice Mac McCorkle said that makes political sense.
McCorkle said that while he can see why someone would oppose the amendment as “an affront to good government,” fighting against it is a “futile battle.”
“If you had a lot of money, you might be able to convince people that this is bad stuff,” he said. “But grassroots groups don’t have that money, and if they had that money, they’d need to spend it on Vice President Harris and Josh Stein.”
Making it a big deal would invite Republicans to criticize Democrats for being OK with noncitizens voting in North Carolina elections, he said.
“It’s almost like the Republicans are baiting the Democrats to oppose it,” McCorkle said.
Crawford has a different take.
“When you’re fighting for the right things, it’s always worth doing,” she said. “And I think the right thing is to leave our (state) Constitution the way that it is, particularly when it’s regarding this language that is actually more clear in our Constitution now than it is if we were to amend it.”
However, neither McCorkle nor Crawford believe the amendment will have much impact on turnout. Both expect large crowds regardless, and expect those who are excited about the amendment to be energized already by former president Donald Trump.
Nonetheless, it could matter in a close presidential race, which is expected in North Carolina, McCorkle said.
“If I’m being a cynical Republican, why not put it on the ballot? It’s not going to harm anything,” he said. “It might get us 5,000 more votes,10,000, 20,000 more votes. It could matter because everything’s so close, but it matters because everything’s so close, not because it’s just going to capture the public imagination.”
Are noncitizens voting in North Carolina?
While the proposed constitutional amendment has nothing to do with noncitizens illegally casting votes in an election, some say the amendment may stoke fears about fraudulent voting.
“I do think it’s a way for conservatives to say, ‘Oh, this is something that we need,’ because they allege that there’s widespread noncitizen voting fraud, which isn’t true,” Crawford said.
Center for Election Integrity and Research founder David Becker said any allegations of widespread illegal voting by noncitizens are unfounded.
“State after state after state has looked at this issue,” he said. “They find a very small number of even potential noncitizens on their list, and virtually zero, and in some cases, actually zero, of these potential noncitizens having voted.”
If noncitizens are caught attempting to vote or actually voting in an election, they are subject to prison time and potentially, deportation. Becker said he doubts anyone who has managed to get into the U.S. illegally is willing to risk it all to be one of likely 160 million votes in a national election.
In North Carolina, the State Board of Elections has an investigations division that looks into cases of potential voter fraud. If they find merit to claims brought to them by observers, elections officials, voters, parties, campaigns or anyone else, they refer the case to prosecutors.
From 2015 to 2022, the investigations team only referred eight cases where they suspected a noncitizen of registering to vote or voting illegally.
In addition to investigations, the State Board has several processes to ensure noncitizens don’t vote, accidentally or on purpose.
The first question on North Carolina’s voter registration form asks whether the registrant is a U.S. citizen. It instructs those who are not citizens not to submit the form, since they are not eligible to vote. Registrants must sign the form under penalty of perjury, and it’s a Class I felony to lie about one’s citizenship status to vote.
Identifying information on the voter registration form is checked against data from the DMV and the Social Security Administration.
At the North Carolina DMV, customers are asked whether they are citizens, and if they say no, are not offered voter registration services.
Any registered voter can challenge the right of someone in their county to vote, if they have a valid basis to believe they are not a U.S. citizen.
Finally, a new law passed this year requires the State Board to match the names of people excused from jury duty for not being U.S. citizens to their voter rolls. In August, the Board got its first set of data since the law passed, and nine individuals matched.
The Board is currently checking state and federal databases to determine whether any of the nine noncitizen potential jurors have since obtained citizenship, and if they haven’t, will send them a letter asking them to cancel their registrations. Normally, the Board could remove ineligible voters themselves, but there is a 90-day period before elections where list maintenance efforts are limited.
Will the amendment pass?
In states where noncitizen voting is on the ballot, voters tend to overwhelmingly support it. The same may be true for North Carolina, according to a Cygnal poll conducted on behalf of the conservative John Locke Foundation in August.
In the survey, 80% of 600 likely voters said they would vote for the amendment, while 10% said they would oppose it.
“It’s going to pass, for sure,” McCorkle said. “Because the way people look at this, it’s going to seem like common sense.”
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