AUGUSTA — A Republican lawmaker's proposal to forbid Portland or other Maine municipalities from allowing non-citizens to vote sparked fence Mon about civic interest and immigrants' contributions to communities.

Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Wintertime Harbor, did not mention Portland while presenting his "straightforward" proposal for a constitutional amendment restricting voting rights to U.Due south. citizens. But it was clear throughout the public hearing on his bill that last year's debate in Portland over allowing legal not-citizens to cast ballots in metropolis elections was the driving force backside the effort to modify Maine's Constitution.

"This beak adds one sentence to the Constitution of Maine: only a citizen of the United States may vote in a state, county, or municipal or other election," Faulkingham told members of the Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Commission. "This subpoena only sets in rock what the framers of the Constitution already implied and intended all along."

While opponents dismissed such historical interpretations, Chaser General Aaron Frey seemed to question the need for a constitutional amendment because he said state law already reserves voting rights for citizens.

"This means that municipalities are not currently able to adopt ordinances to permit non-citizens to vote in municipal elections, as these ordinances would violate the statutes," Frey wrote in a alphabetic character to commission members.

Last twelvemonth, Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling and Councilor Pious Ali co-sponsored a proposal to permit legally nowadays non-citizens to cast ballots for City Council, school lath and other city elections. The Portland City Council voted in August to send the issue to a quango committee for boosted work after it became clear it lacked the votes and after immigrant advocates warned nigh unintended ramifications of giving non-citizens the vote.

The proposal by Republican Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham would bar assuasive non-citizens to vote in municipal elections. Kennebec Periodical/Joe Phelan

The timing of the proposal – amid the national debate over immigration policy and President Trump'south demands for a border wall – made it a hot topic outside of Portland city limits. Even if the Legislature approved Faulkingham's beak – which would require two-thirds votes in the Democrat-controlled House and Senate – information technology would still need approving by Maine voters on a statewide ballot to amend the state Constitution.

Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro, who is vice chairman of the Maine Republican Political party, said Monday that when cities such as Portland "are determined to promote the destruction of the republic by eroding the essence of citizenship, information technology becomes clear that action by the state is unavoidable."

Isgro, who has made headlines for controversial comments in the past, called allowing non-citizens to vote "a reckless and dangerous path" and was among multiple supporters who described it equally "a slap in the face" to both natural-born citizens and immigrants who went through the naturalization process.

Such comments prompted a stern response from Strimling.

"First and foremost, allow'southward understand that the Constitution of the United states did not and does not limit the right to vote to citizens," Strimling said. "Equally a matter of fact, for the offset 150 years of our state'due south history, 40 states allowed immigrants to vote. Information technology was non, of course, until the nativist motility – supported and often led by the Ku Klux Klan – at the turn of the 20th century that we began stopping immigrants from having the right to vote."

Portland has, for years, been a destination for immigrants fleeing war, persecution and economical strife in their native countries. The city is abode to a vibrant community of immigrants in a land whose population consistently ranks amidst the whitest – and oldest – in the country. Yet the influx of asylum-seeking immigrants from sub-Saharan countries – well-nigh of whom arrive in the U.S. legally with visas – in recent years has strained the city's social service programs and drawn national scrutiny from conservatives amid the polarized argue over immigration.

Strimling said other cities around the state already allow non-citizens to vote in local elections because immigrants are agile – and important – members of those communities.

"You can fight for our country, you tin pay taxes to our country, your kids tin can exist in schools, y'all tin create jobs and support our economic system," Strimling said. "But what you are discussing today is to say that, 'No, yous are non going to be able to take a basic correct of participation in our democracy.'"

But Diana Maples, a Canadian native who became a U.Due south. citizen in 1965, was among several speakers who saw partisan motivations in those pushing to give non-citizens an opportunity to vote. Maples, of Due west Gardiner, also questioned why anyone would want to go through the lengthy and expensive naturalization process if they "can have all of the rights and privileges without citizenship."

"If y'all care near this country and y'all want to take role in it, in that location is a way to do it – the correct way," Maples said. "I'one thousand so tired of people just getting without earning. I actually am."

The committee volition vote on Faulkingham'south pecker, L.D. 186, at a later appointment. Lawmakers volition likely talk over, at that fourth dimension, Frey's letter of the alphabet advising members that Maine law currently specifies that a "person must exist a citizen of the Usa" to vote in municipal elections.

In 2010, Portland residents rejected a like proposal during a urban center-wide referendum. The city's legal counsel, Gary Woods, brash urban center officials prior to plebiscite that "the proposed charter amendment does non contain any provision prohibited by the United States Constitution, the Constitution of Maine or the full general laws." While Wood acknowledged "legal doubt" over the issue, he also advised the Charter Committee to consider the merits of the proposal without trying to guess how any legal bug would play out in the hereafter.

Both Strimling and Garrett Corbin of the Maine Municipal Clan pointed out that the result of non-citizens voting has never been tested in court in Maine. Corbin likewise said the proposed constitutional amendment would violate Maine's "dwelling house dominion" authority.

Kevin Miller tin be contacted at 791-6312 or at:

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Twitter: KevinMillerPPH

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