Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has introduced an amendment to the immigration bill to ensure individuals on work visas or given resident status under the bill are not allowed to vote in federal elections until they become citizens.
The “Secure the Vote” amendment would require new procedures to encourage states to check that individuals gaining status or a work visa are not registered to vote.
“Not only would this amendment prevent voter fraud, it would also clear up the problem created by today’s Supreme Court decision,” Paul said. “My amendment requires states to check citizenship before registering people to vote in federal elections.”
Federal election funding would be conditional on those checks. States that do not implement verification procedure in federal elections within one year will also lose ten percent of their federal highway funds, Paul’s office said.
The Department of Homeland Security would be required to report those states found to have registered noncitizens to Congress.
DHS would have to include a search of voter rolls in processing residency requests.
If a provisional immigrant, work-visa holder or other person ineligible to vote illegally register, he or she will be blocked from attaining residency or citizenship.
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