House of Representatives Votes to Overturn D.C. Law Allowing Aliens to Vote

FAIR Take | June 2024

On May 23, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 192 to prohibit aliens from voting in local elections in the District of Columbia. Federal action was spurred as the District of Columbia began to implement its new law, called the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act, which grants noncitizens – including illegal aliens and foreign diplomats– the right to vote in local D.C. elections. The bill passed by a vote of 262-143, with all Republicans and 52 Democrats in support.

Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress has plenary legislative authority over D.C. as the federal capital. The Home Rule Act of 1973 grants authority over local matters to the D.C. mayor and city council. However, it also provides for a process by which Congress may review and disapprove of D.C. laws before they take effect, as well as repeal D.C. laws already enacted and legislate on its behalf. It was pursuant to this law that the House of Representatives sought to rescind D.C.’s new voting law.

Members who supported overturning the voting law argued that the nation’s capital should set the standard on election integrity. The author of the House measure, Congressman Pfluger (R-Texas) said, “To think that Americans are in favor of having noncitizens vote in Washington D.C. is ludicrous; that’s why this legislation is so important.” He argued that the D.C. city council allowing and even encouraging noncitizens to participate in elections “lessens and cheapens citizenship” and called on his colleagues to “put citizenship on the pedestal it deserves.”

Meanwhile, some House Democrats pushed back against the bill, saying it was a waste of time and openly supported D.C.’s law allowing illegal aliens to vote. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) claimed that the legislation “undermines the democratic self-governance of our nation’s capital.” Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who has long argued against a citizenship requirement for voting, was especially critical. Raskin called the legislation an effort “to undermine the will of D.C. residents and their locally elected representatives.”

Last year, Congress tried but failed to pass legislation to prevent the D.C. law from going into effect. That joint resolution passed the House but then stalled in the Senate. Even D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, expressed at least some concern with the D.C. law at the time, forcing it to be enacted without her signature.

In 2023, seven D.C. residents also challenged the law in federal court. In their complaint, the D.C. residents argued that the enfranchisement of noncitizens “dilutes the vote of every U.S. citizen voter in the District.” Defending the law, the D.C. Board of Elections claimed that the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing, and specifically that the plaintiffs had not established injury-in-fact, a conclusion with which the court agreed, dismissing the case in March 2024. The D.C. residents plan to appeal and argue that they do have standing “because they allege an injury—dilution of their votes—that has again and again been recognized as particularized, and do not merely assert a general interest in the proper operation of government.”

Some Members of Congress are also taking action to prevent aliens from voting in elections. In May, Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The SAVE Act would require states to obtain proof of citizenship when registering someone to vote and would require states to remove noncitizens from existing voter rolls. 

In addition, Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) and Sen. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) earlier this year introduced the Equal Representation Act to prevent illegal aliens from skewing congressional apportionment. That bill would reinstate a citizenship question on the decennial census and only allow U.S. citizens to count toward apportionment of congressional seats. These timely pieces of legislation seek to prevent the unprecedented crisis at the border from diluting the votes of citizens and distorting congressional and Electoral College reapportionments following the 2030 census.

Noncitizen voting in the District of Columbia, and around the country, unfairly dilutes the votes of American citizens and endangers national security by empowering noncitizens, including illegal aliens and foreign diplomats, in determining electoral outcomes. FAIR applauds the House for moving forward with the bill to repeal the D.C. law.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) released a statement following the bill’s passage, charging that D.C. could be the first of many local jurisdictions to push the envelope when it comes to illegal aliens voting. “Make no mistake, if it were successful, progressive Democrats would use this experiment as justification to encourage noncitizen voting in more communities across the country. Congress has a responsibility to prevent this, and the Senate must immediately send this bill to the President’s desk.”