Wisconsin Voters Back US Citizenship as Voting Requirement

Just as they were electing liberal Judge Susan Crawford to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a nationally-watched special election Tuesday, Badger State voters resoundingly enacted a state constitutional amendment to ban non-citizens from voting.

By a vote of 70%-30% statewide, voters approved an amendment to change constitutional language that says "every" U.S. citizen 18 or older has a right to vote to instead say that "only" a U.S. citizen 18 or older can vote in national, state, and local elections.

Only one of Wisconsin's 72 counties delivered more "no" votes than "yes" on the measure: the Democrat bastion of Dane County, which includes the state capital of Madison.

Although Congress approved legislation in 1996 to make U.S. citizenship a requirement for voting in national elections, it left the question of voting in state or local elections to the states. Last November, seven states voted to ban non-citizens from voting in state and local elections.

Opponents of the measure such as the League of Women Voters charged that it was created to discourage voter participation.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the executive director of the immigrant group Voces de la Frontera Action, told the Votebeat Wisconsin publication the measure was an example of Republicans focusing on "mythological problems that were created … to make voting harder."

Supporters of the measure are now expected to focus on enacting legislation requiring proof of citizenship such as a photo ID in order to vote. Opponents are also expected to go into court to challenge the citizenship measure.

"On the same day Wisconsin voters passed a citizenship requirement to vote, they elected a judge [Crawford] who might easily be the deciding vote on the [state] Supreme Court to strike it down," Van Mobley, former president of the Board of Trustees for the village of Thiensville and one of President Donald Trump's earliest Wisconsin supporters, told Newsmax.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.