Noncitizen voting has become a favorite topic in many Republican states, and Louisiana has engaged in some overkill. The state’s voters thought they had that issue settled in 2022.

Louisiana voters on Dec. 10, 2022, gave 73% approval to a state constitutional amendment that says, “No person who is not a citizen of the United States shall be allowed to register and vote in this state.”

Unfortunately, legislators during their spring session wanted more and passed a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, starting Jan. 1, which really complicates voting.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry and GOP state Attorney General Liz Murrill took things a step further. Landry issued an executive order that calls for noncitizens to be monitored to ensure they aren’t offered opportunities to register to vote.

The governor also directed the state Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV) to compile a list of people issued a temporary, 180-day Louisiana’s driver’s licenses or identification cards. That list will be turned over to Secretary of State Nancy Landry so she can cross-check it against voter rolls.

Landry said her voter roll checks since 2022 have resulted in 48 noncitizens being removed from the rolls, but she couldn’t say if any of them had voted.

Murrill at the governor’s news conference said the OMV has issued more than 40,000 temporary IDs and those people and license applicants could have received voting forms. She said some might have unintentionally registered.

Louisiana’s U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, was trying to do his part by getting a Donald Trump-supported bill passed in Congress that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

“I urge all of my colleagues to do what the overwhelming majority of the people of this country rightfully demand and deserve — prevent non-American citizens from voting in American elections,” Johnson said.

Opponents said the legislation would disenfranchise millions of Americans who don’t have a birth certificate or passport readily available when they register to vote and the Nov. 5 presidential election is close.

Fortunately, the government funding bill tied to noncitizen voting was defeated 220-202.

U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California, sized up the bill well when he said Republicans were pushing it to show “that they’re continuing to support the former president of the United States in his bid to demonize immigrants.”

Non-citizens have been barred from voting in federal elections in the United States for at least a century. And Ballotpedia said Congress also passed a law in 1996 prohibiting noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

The Bipartisan Policy Center said noncitizens illegally voting in a federal election can result in a fine and up to one year in federal prison. They could also be deported, so why would they take that gamble?

In addition to Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio as of this month have included language in their state constitutions explicitly prohibiting noncitizen voting, according to Ballotpedia.

The Associated Press said voters having to prove their citizenship has become a leading election-year priority for Republicans, even though noncitizen voting is already illegal and rare.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a Republican election official in Arizona wants his state supreme court to prohibit some 98,000 voters from voting in state and local races this fall. He said the state has no record of asking them for documents proving their citizenship.

Arizona requires voters to swear that they are citizens when they register to vote, but for 20 years they have also had to show birth certificates, naturalization papers or other documents proving citizenship.

Getting the documents the 98,000 would need takes time. The GOP election official just wants them to get ballots with federal candidates until they prove their citizenship. They deserve full ballots.

The Post said Adrian Fontes, the Democratic secretary of state, and other officials downplayed the possibility that a large portion of the 98,000 people are noncitizens. And Fontes said most of them are registered as Republicans.

The end result of all of this is the possibility that because of having to prove their citizenship, many of the 98,000 may end up not voting, even for federal officials, and Arizona is a swing state.

Voting isn’t supposed to be this difficult.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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