Rep. William Timmons (SC-04) introduced H.R. 8218, the Demanding Citizenship in DC Elections Act, to require anyone who votes in a municipal election in the District of Columbia to be a U.S. Citizen and require proof of citizenship. This legislation is in response to a federal court dismissing a D.C. resident’s challenge of the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022 that allows noncitizens to vote in our nation’s capital. Rep. Timmons’ legislation is cosponsored by Rep. Pfluger (R-TX), Rep. Hageman (R-WY), and Rep. Fry (R-SC) and led in the U.S. Senate by Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS).

“Our wide open border has allowed 11 million illegal immigrants into our country,” said Rep. William Timmons. “Now Democrats want illegal immigrants to vote in local elections in our nation’s capital. This is outrageous. Only U.S. citizens should be able to vote. Period. Any attempts by liberal cities and states to allow those who broke our laws and entered our country illegally to vote must be stopped.”

“Joe Biden has erased our borders, undermined our national security, and threatened our sovereignty. The Democrats and the DNC’s takeover of our elections in Washington, D.C., undermines our Democracy, and they do not even try to hide it,” Senator Marshall said. “This is election interference by design, with the ultimate goal being the unraveling of our free and fair elections by engineering the largest-scale invasion of our country and turning them out at the ballot box to perpetually ‘cook the books’ for Democrats.”

Background:

On March 20, a federal court dismissed a challenge on behalf of voters against the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022, a Washington D.C. law that allows noncitizens to vote in D.C. municipal elections. While this law remains in effect, all residents over 18 who have lived in the district for 30 days, regardless of whether they are here legally, can vote in district elections for mayor, city council, attorney general, and advisory neighborhood commissioners, among other offices and DC proposals.

This law violates the 5th Amendment to the Constitution and threatens the integrity of democratic processes in our nation's capital. Similar efforts to give noncitizens voting rights have failed, as appeals courts have found the underlying legal justifications for these provisions to violate state constitutions. Because Washington, D.C. has no state constitution to safeguard electoral processes, it is the duty of Congress to demand proof of citizenship in D.C. municipal elections.