(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) State level lawmakers in Massachusetts filed several bills proposing that foreign nationals receive the right to vote in municipal elections.
If passed, the bill would allow green card holders to vote in mayoral elections, school committee races, city and town council campaigns, board of selectmen, select board elections, school committee referendums and local ballot referendums, according to Breitbart.
Democrat state legislators James Eldridge, Samantha Montaño and Mike Connolly all sponsored the bills.
The House and Senate committees on election laws reviewed the bills in several different hearings.
“Immigrants are essential to our communities… many are on the path to citizenship but lack the ability to apply, but they need to have a say in how public services are funded and governed,” Vanessa Snow, director of policy and organizing for MassVOTE, said in a hearing on the bills.
MassVOTE also argued for 16-years-old to become the minimum voting age.
Democrats in Massachusetts also fought to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses via the Work and Family Mobility Act, despite former Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s attempt to veto the bill.
“This license we’re talking about is not a privilege-to-drive card, which is what they have in a bunch of other states,” Baker said on Boston Public Radio. “It looks exactly like a Massachusetts driver’s license—you can’t tell the difference between this and a regular one.”
Democrats held a special session to overrule the veto, allowing the bill to become law before the end of the year.
They also claimed they only wanted to implement the law so parents could safely pick up their children from school and run errands.
The state has an estimated 85,000 illegals with the potential to receive a license.
Representatives originally estimated that the project would cost $10,000—a price tag that ballooned to nearly $30 million before the bill became law.
