New York’s proposal to allow non-citizens to vote in local elections “could certainly change the balance of power, not just in citywide elections, but also in neighborhoods,” if these areas have a lot of illegal immigrants, argues New York City Republican Councilman Joe Borelli.
Borelli is a plaintiff on a lawsuit in front of the New York Supreme Court battling this proposal.
“This is essentially the goal of what the proponents of this want to do and the downstream impact will be that this group of people will have an outsized voice in the finances and laws of New York City,” Borelli told Newsmax on Wednesday.
"The thing we got to remember, though, is that the New York State Constitution is very clear on this," he continued. "This is why two lower courts have found in our favor. The Constitution says that every citizen over 18 is allowed to vote in municipal elections. It's clear as day. The second provision is that when a municipality like New York City is going to change any type of election regulations, they have to do so in a public referendum. That didn't happen here because, of course, even in lefty liberal woke New York, the majority of people who vote in a referendum would not actually support this. That's kind of the pickle that the proponents are in right now.”
The New York City Board of Elections has testified that, if the non-citizen voting proposal goes into effect, “there would be no way to really verify who would be voting,” Borelli said.
“Our Board of Elections is a bipartisan entity made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and they have also said that, ‘Hey, this is not a very effective way to be able to verify who's voting.’ But I don't even think it's about the voter fraud aspect of it," he added. "This is really just to give people who are here illegally, or those who came here legally, but overstayed their welcome…a greater voice in city government and pull New York City even further to the left. That's the problem that New Yorkers should really have. If these people are able to vote, they'll be able to vote for things that regular New Yorkers can vote for, including how we spend $115 billion of taxpayer money. We saddle future generations of our city residents with our debt and this would only probably add to that if this group continues to seek more benefits and more opportunities for their own folks."
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