FACT CHECK: Claim New York Proposition One Will Grant Voting Rights to Illegal Immigrants Is False
A post made on Facebook claims Proposition One on New York’s ballot will grant voting rights to illegal immigrants.
Verdict: False
The proposition’s text does not mention voting rights for illegal immigrants.
Fact Check:
Social media users are claiming that Proposition One on New York’s ballot in the 2024 election will grant voting rights to illegal aliens. One user wrote, “VOTE NO ON PROP 1 🚨⚠️ALERT NY STATE: Democrats are trying to pass Proposition One on the November 5th ballot, which will strip parental rights and grant benefits and voting rights to illegal aliens.”
The claim is false. The proposition’s text does not mention voting rights for illegal immigrants. (Check Your Fact is addressing the voting rights for illegal immigrants claim, not the broader claims of the entire post.) (RELATED: Does Michigan Have 500,000 More Registered Voters Than Eligible Citizens?)
The proposition’s text reads, “No person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in [his or her] their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state, pursuant to law.”
The above text does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of citizenship. When asked about the proposition, former New York state representative John Faso told Fox News, “Noncitizen voting could become a reality because the argument will be it’s discriminatory based on my national origin that I shouldn’t have a right to vote even though I’m not a citizen.”
Faso indicated that this remark is speculation via the use of the word “could” on Fox News. Faso also expanded on his remarks to Check Your Fact.
“By adding ‘national origin’ as a constitutionally protected category it opens the door to the assertion of rights to taxpayer benefits for non-citizens and would provide another argument for those who support non-citizen voting in New York. Already, NYC has a law – which has so far been successfully challenged in the courts – to provide for non-citizen voting in local elections. If Prop 1 passes, we can expect that this new constitutional right based on national origin to be argued by proponents of non-citizen voting as supporting their arguments,” Faso said.
“So it is important to keep in mind that Prop 1 opens the door to the assertion of such rights and advocates for non-citizen voting or transgender rights will surely assert these new constitutional rights in litigation based on the state constitution,” Faso added.
If New York did pass a law allowing illegal immigrants to vote, the law would only apply to local races. Federal law prohibits illegal aliens from voting in federal elections, such as the presidential election.
USA Today has also fact-checked this claim. Check Your Fact has reached out to the New York Board of Elections for comment.