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The Georgia Senate on January 24, 2022, denied a plan to adjust the state constitution to allow a ban on noncitizens voting, which is already in state law.
For a constitutional amendment on a party-line vote, Senate Resolution 363 needed two-thirds majority of 38, even though they won the majority in a 33-14 vote. Democrats opposed the measure, but Republicans supported it, according to the Associated Press.
The amendment also would prevent the Georgia General Assembly from passing a bill allowing noncitizens to participate in elections in the future, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"All we're trying to do is take what's in Georgia code and put it in the Georgia constitution," Senate President Pro Tem Butch Miller said. Miller is a Gainesville Republican who sponsored the measure.
Republicans, like Miller, said the change is needed to clarify the constitution so it reflects state law, which says only citizens of the U.S. and residents of Georgia can vote in Georgia elections.
"One person voting who is not eligible to vote is one too many," Miller said.
Two cities throughout Vermont and nine cities in Maryland allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, according to the AP, and San Francisco allows noncitizen parents of students to vote in school board elections.
According to Democrats, they only want citizens to vote, yet say the move is "unnecessary political theater" aimed at motivating Republican voters during an election year, according to the AP.
"The intention of this legislation may be to try and incite a particular base in this state to gin up support for their own elections," Senator Emanuel Jones, a Decatur Democrat, said according to the AP.
"We're going to exclude those who are not citizens and residents of Georgia," Miller said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "In Georgia, voting is sacred, and citizenship should matter."
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger argues the constitution needs more clarity and has campaigned in favor of the change.
"Voting is a sacred responsibility for American citizens," Newsweek reported that Raffensperger said in a statement calling for the change. "Everyone should agree that only American Citizens should vote."
After signing a petition and asking for Georgia citizens to sign it, he said "First, noncitizens shouldn't have a hand in laws that govern citizens. Second, it would create confusion about who can vote because federal elections are restricted to citizens, so noncitizens would be able to vote in some races, but not others."
New York recently decided to allow legal permanent residents to vote in city elections, but it is being challenged, and 800,000 noncitizens voted during the last election, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Miller backs the proposal and is one of several pieces of legislation he is using to appeal to conservatives.
"In order to obtain your citizenship, you have to pledge your allegiance, swear your loyalty, to the United States of America and shed your allegiance to your previous country," Republican Senator Greg Dolezal said, according to the AP.
In 2021, the Georgia State Election Board fined a woman from Gwinnett County $500 due to her voting in 2012 and 2016 despite being a noncitizen.
