Wisconsin voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to expressly prohibit noncitizens from voting in local elections.
The Republican-backed ballot question wouldn’t have much practical effect, since current law already bans noncitizen voting in state and federal elections, and no Wisconsin municipalities allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, such as school and county board races.
“It seems like all the provision would do is close the door on a municipality deciding that they are going to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections,” said Bree Grossi Wilde, executive director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “And it’s also, I would say, not clear right now that a municipality could determine that it would allow noncitizens to vote under the current law.”
A small handful of towns and cities in other states allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. There is no evidence that widespread, illegal noncitizen voting has occurred in recent elections.