Virginia's Voter Registration doesn't ask if you are a citizen. Del. Albo passed a bill which requires the State Board to delete non-citizens, but they have no way to know who is a citizen or not. Lingamfelter proposed what seemed to be a very innocuous law which simply added a question about citizenship to the forms used at the DMV to register voters. That's it "Are you a citizen".
The idea is that people won't lie on an official form -- not much of a deterrent, but at least a step. Certainly it's nothing anybody could object to, right?
Wrong. It seems democrats need all the votes they can get, and they count on illegal voters. So Governor Kaine amended Scott's bill to remove all references to the DMV.
In a cultural climate where the topic of immigration is at the forefront of heated debates, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine eliminated the crux of a bill that could deter non-citizens from registering to vote.
Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles patrons can indicate if they would like to register to vote on driver's license, driver's permit and identification card applications.
HB170 would have for the first time required the DMV to include in these applications a question regarding citizenship status.
Kaine amended the bill, deleting all references to the DMV.
According to the PNews, the resulting bill is a "mirror" of the Albo bill. Kaine's excuse, provided by his spokesperson, was "We're not sure that DMV should become an immigration office without further discussion, further reflection".
Forget for the moment that the bill did nothing of the sort -- it merely added a question to a list of questions on forms that the DMV simply sends on to the appropriate agency. What further discussion, further reflection is needed when we are talking about NON-CITIZENS voting in our elections?
As the article states:
Clay Landa, a policy analyst with the State Board of Elections, said the agency has no way to verify who is legally registered to vote because the registration process does not request proof of citizenship.
And, there is no official tally of unlawfully registered voters.
"We have no way of knowing," Landa said. "There is no indication that it isn't a problem, and there is no indication that it is a problem."
Pardon me, but if there is no way to ensure that people are registered legally, there most definitely is a BIG problem.
Lingamfelter hopes to resolve this peacefully. Having worked to ensure that all agencies involved approved of his plan, he now is hoping to convince Kaine to rescind his amendment:
In a letter dated April 13, Lingamfelter asked the Democratic governor to recede his amendment of the voting bill.
"I took great pains to ensure that both the DMV and the SBOE were in agreement with this bill," Lingamfelter wrote.
"Additionally, I coordinated with both the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, and the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that this bill did not violate any law. Both assured me it was legal and appropriate for the DMV to ask the citizenship question."
Lingamfelter said he wrote Kaine because "I think that in the process of looking at the bill he has come to a conclusion that is incorrect. What I'm trying to do is work with him in a bipartisan fashion."
Lingamfelter's bill passed unanimously in the house, and 25-14 in the Senate, so it seems he should have enough votes to override the changes. But he shouldn't have to.
I don't believe for a minute that Kaine took this step because of concern over DMV's involvement in the process, which would be nil. Kaine eviscerated this bill because democrats want to encourage voting by non-citizens.
Throughout the country, democrats have learned the value of collecting additional votes from the ranks of those who are not legally entitled to vote. Whether fighting removal of felons from the voting roles, or picture id's to ensure ballot integrity, or simply asking prospective voters if they are in fact citizens, the Democrat party stands opposed to protecting the valuable voting franchise.
Update: My internet connection crashed when I first posted this -- I recovered half of it and posted, but have since gone through and tweaked it a little.
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