New York Appeals Court Announces Decision on Dems’ Non-Citizen Voting Scheme

TOWNHALL | SPENCER BROWN | FEBRUARY 22, 2024
PHOTO CREDIT | AP / JAE C. HONG

A lawsuit in New York led by the Republican National Committee saw sanity prevail when an appellate court ruled that no, non-U.S. citizens cannot vote in our elections. If the absurd policy had been allowed to stand, some 900,000 non-citizens to cast votes in municipal elections in the Big Apple.

In a 43-page order in Fossella v Adams, Associate Justice Paul Wooten of the Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department in New York announced the decision that “the Local Law is null and void on the grounds that it violates the New York State Constitution and the Municipal Home Rule Law.”

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel emphasized that “American elections should be decided by American citizens – full stop,” in a statement provided to Townhall. “The RNC has devoted significant resources to stopping Democrats from letting non-citizens vote, and this massive court victory in America’s biggest city demonstrates the impact of our election integrity legal operation,” McDaniel emphasized. “The RNC will continue fighting to keep non-citizens out of our elections in New York City and nationwide.”

In his opinion, Wooten cites Article II, Section 1, of the New York State Constitution which states “Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people…provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty days next preceding an election.”

“The plain language of this provision provides that the right to vote in ‘every election for all officers elected by the people’ is available exclusively to ‘citizen[s],’ as there is no reference to noncitizens, and thus, an irrefutable inference applies that noncitizens were intended to be excluded from those individuals entitled to vote in elections,” Wooten surmised.

Wooten also noted that Election Law § 5-102(1) states “[n]o person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless he is a citizen of the United States” and applies to “all elections at which voters of the state of New York may cast a ballot for the purpose of electing an individual to any party position or nominating or electing an individual to any federal, state, county, city, town or village office.”

“Thus, pursuant to the New York State Election Law, eligibility to vote in a municipal election is dependent upon United States citizenship,” Wooten concluded. In addition, and contrary to a dissenting opinion, Wooten noted there is not “any legislative history reflecting an intent to confer upon municipalities the power to make noncitizens eligible to vote” in the first place.

The RNC has significantly ramped up its election integrity efforts under Chairwoman McDaniel’s tenure, engaging in more than 75 legal actions across 23 states in just the 2024 cycle alone. The lawsuit in New York is in addition to RNC-led challenges to policies allowing non-citizen voting in Arizona, Texas, and Vermont.