Each of the guarantees of voting rights in the national Constitution — in the 14th, 15th, 19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments — is explicitly limited to “citizens of the United States.” Since 1996, federal law has made it a felony for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, although federal law allows states to make their own choices.

Non-citizen voting is the latest push by progressives — along with felon voting and mass amnesty — who fear that they cannot win elections conducted only among law-abiding American citizens. San Francisco is presently the only major city to allow it, and the governance of San Francisco is not exactly a model that anyone should emulate. Chicago also allows non-citizens to vote in some school elections, as do several Maryland municipalities.