A complaint filed on Monday alleges that allowing foreigners to cast ballots in Burlington School District votes is against Vermont Constitution.
The lawsuit brought by two Vermont residents against the City of Burlington alleges that a policy act that the region passed last year that made it possible for noncitizens to cast ballots in Burlington School District votes is incompatible with the Green Mountain State’s foundation file. Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections ( RITE), a legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting election integrity, supports the residents.
The lawsuit claims that” the mandate change that permits noncitizen election has changed the skills for voters as defined in [the Vermont Constitution] and that the individual Plaintiffs are voters ‘ within the vote share for which those requirements have been changed,” according to the lawsuit. Both Plaintiffs are registered voters who have cast ballots and try to cast ballots in the Burlington elections. Those votes may become diluted by noncitizen vote made possible by Burlington’s contract change”.
In March of this year, the City of Burlington amended its charter to allow foreign nationals with legal position to “register and cast ballot in all local primaries” Foreigners who want to cast ballot under the article must also be at least 18 years old, have taken the Vermont’s Voter’s Oath, be residents of Burlington as required by state law, and been “registered to voting with the Board of Registration of Voters no later than the date established by Vermont regulation for that election or meeting.”
The amendment was vetoed by liberal Republican governor in May 2023 after being approved by Vermont’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Phil Scott that same month. The General Assembly subsequently overrode Scott’s veto on June 20, 2023, allowing the amendment to take effect.
Plaintiffs argue that the city oath, which requires foreigners to recite before casting ballot in Burlington School District elections and includes votes on the annual education budget as well as for members of a Board of School Commissioners, contradicts the Vermont Constitution’s Voter Oath. Rather than require noncitizen electors to pledge to vote in the state’s best interests, as specified by Vermont’s founding document, Burlington’s oath requires them to pledge to vote in the city’s best interests.
Because” [s]chool budgets and school funding in Vermont are statewide, freeman issues,” according to the plaintiffs, “votes regarding local school budgets directly impact the State budget and thus the financial interests of Vermonters statewide” are problematic, according to the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit states that once a school budget is approved by local voters, paying for it through the State Education Fund is delegated to the State. Even though those votes have significant extra-municipal and statewide implications and directly implicate [the Vermont Constitution’s ] limitation of the franchise to United States citizens, defendant has now expanded the electorate that determines educational issues to include noncitizens.
The lawsuit details litigation that was brought against other Vermont towns for approving noncitizen voting laws in the past. The Republican National Committee sued the cities, alleging that the measures violated the Vermont Constitution, after Montpelier and Winoski’s adopted charter amendments that authorized alien voting in their local elections in 2021.
In January 2023, the Vermont Supreme Court decided that the state constitution does not” categorically” prohibit foreigners from casting ballots in local elections, which was ultimately decided by the Vermont Supreme Court. A lower court similarly dismissed the GOP’s challenge to Winooski’s charter amendment.
However, the Supreme Court, in accordance with plaintiffs ‘ claims, “while the Supreme Court rejected the argument that all municipal elections are now subject to Section 42] of the Vermont Constitution], it held that specific municipal votes would require United States citizenship if those votes were of statewide concern.”
In other words, plaintiffs claim that the state Supreme Court left the door open for challenges to be brought against charter amendments that permit alien voting if such voting has an impact on statewide residents.
RITE President Derek Lyons stated in a statement that the non-citizen voting movement accomplishes the left’s goal of allowing foreign interference in American elections. It “violates the rule of law” and needs to be stopped before it spreads to Vermont and other states throughout the country.
Plaintiffs are asking the court to overturn Burlington’s charter amendment because it relates to school board elections and funding for education. Additionally, they ask the court to stop the city and its employees from enforcing the amendment’s “application to any election that determines school board members or funding for the City of Burlington, including the enrollment of any noncitizen voters or the allowance of noncitizen voting in such elections in the future.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a University of Mary Washington graduate and a staff writer for The Federalist. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
