13-06-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Trumping D.C.'s Progressive Pipe Dreams
The House voted this week, with 56 Democratic ayes, to stop the District of Columbia from letting noncitizens vote in local elections. Then a resolution to quash D.C. 'sanctuary' policies passed with 11 Democrats. Both must hurdle a Senate filibuster, but note this show of bipartisanship by Democrats afraid of unpopular progressive excesses.
Only U.S. citizens may vote in federal elections, but a few localities have experimented in recent years with letting aliens vote for mayor or school board. The D.C. City Council passed a law in 2022 to enfranchise noncitizens who have a mere 30 days of residency. That's a worse version of a bad idea, and Congress has a right to intervene, since D.C. is a federal enclave. A resolution to overturn the law in 2023 passed the House with 42 Democratic votes, but it didn't get through the Senate.
