The Real Fake News: Disinformation

So, I was sifting through the live TV options I have on my smart TV. I came across Newsmax, which is a known far-Right news commentary channel. I have never fully watched this stuff, other than some clips on YouTube. I decided to watch for a few minutes. Almost immediately, I was met with either disinformation or misinformation. The bias was thick in the air and lacked historical and legal context.

The topic was on New York City purportedly considering provisions to allow illegal immigrants municipal voting status. I don't recall the commentator's name or his guest's, but the supposed "legal expert"  guest was calling NY City's move unconstitutional and a move to gain Democratic votes. Some thoughts and some historical input.

To begin with, NY votes Blue anyway, so the need for illegal's to vote Democrat is probably not even necessary. The state of New York has been a Democrat stronghold since the Depression and it is dominated by the City's populace. So, what's likely going on then?

One thing that comes to mind is that the presentation is already skewed. Newsmax and other similar sources I have seen online paint this as "allowing illegals to vote." In reality, it is allowing non-citizens the vote, which can include legal immigrants with green cards and other types of visas. This matters. Many of these folks have children in local schools and are subject to the local authorities they reside under. And what of the non-citizen business owner who is a stakeholder in local matters? Unlike federal issues, local matters impact non-citizen residents more readily, closely, and daily. These folks -- legal and illegal -- pay local taxes (often through business and sales taxes) and receive the benefit of local services, like police and fire protection, as well as education. The colonies went to war over taxation without representation. The question is whether non-citizens can have any representation, especially concerning pragmatic matters that happen in localities? 

The fact that the commentator and his guest called this NY proposal unconstitutional shows extreme prejudice and disinformation. This was blatant ignorance of actual law and historical precedence. 18 USC § 611 is the federal code that prohibits non-citizen voting. It is not in the Constitution, but it is a national law. But it only refers to federal elections and not state and local elections. Up until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigration was largely a state matter. Only after the Civil War and with the advent of racial exclusionary laws, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, did the Feds begin to really overtake immigration matters. This meant that prior, states and local governments had greater say in how immigrants could function. It meant that local and state authorities could allow non-citizen residents a say in local matters that affect them. Unfortunately, because states had a say in voting, this led to the disenfranchisement of black citizens following the Civil War through Jim Crow laws prohibiting the black vote. The federal government needed a say in votes to guarantee citizenship. Nonetheless, local matters are still applicable to many non-citizens, so that part of "states' rights" still generally applies.   

At present, only two states (North Dakota and Arizona) have written into their constitutions that non-citizens cannot vote in state and local elections. Nowhere else is this explicit. Many other state constitutions (like NY and MA) state that "residency" is the requisite for local and state voting, not U.S. citizenship. Most states actively allowed non-citizen voting for a part of their histories, with many up unto the early twentieth century. In reality, this has always been a state and local issue until recently. Heck, much of the federal prohibition only began in 1996. And there are still local municipalities and states that allow some forms of non-citizen suffrage. 

Bottom line, just because a presupposition is incensed by what is assumed illegal and unconstitutional, it doesn't mean it is. Non-citizen voting in local and state elections has a history as old as the nation. People really need civics lessons. 

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An of interesting related video link:

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