City Sued Over Alleged Scheme Enabling Non-Citizen Votes

(NewsWorthy.news) – Earlier this week, an elections group sued a city in Vermont for permitting non-citizens to vote in school district elections.

The lawsuit—filed on behalf of two American citizens by the Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) organization—accuses the city of Burlington of breaking the “voter’s qualifications” as outlined in the constitution of Vermont. The city allegedly did so by allowing non-citizens to cast votes in Burlington School District and other city elections.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday June 18, policies that allow non-citizens to vote for things like school commissioners “violates the Vermont Constitution.” RITE explained that this violation occurs because Burlington’s yearly education budget uses taxpayer dollars, gathered through the Board of School Commissioners’ State Education Fund.

The lawsuit argues that permitting non-citizens to have a say in who is on the Board of School Commissioners permits them to “affect financial decisions” which will impact “all Vermont taxpayers.”

The legal battle waged in Burlington is not the first time that non-citizen voting has been a point of contention in the Green Mountain State. Montpelier, Vermont, approved a policy in the fall of 2018 which permitted non-citizens to vote in specified local elections. Similarly, in 2020, Winooski city officials approved a proposal that allowed non-citizens to vote in every city election.

Both amendments from the cities were approved by the state’s General Assembly in 2021, which also overrode a veto from GOP Gov. Phil Scott later the same year.

RITE president Derek Lyons said in a press release that the move to allow non-citizen voting in local Vermont elections is a way “to undermine democracy” in the state, which he suggested is moving forward “at an alarming pace,” citing that it has “reached” the largest city in Vermont.

Lyons added that American citizens deserve their “right to direct” the leadership in local communities and condemned non-citizen voting as a left-wing agenda to “legaliz[e] foreign interference” in United States elections.