Foreign National Voting in Madison

The cover story of this weeks Isthmus is Latino immigration, legal and illegal, into Dane County Wisconsin. Local government believes there are between 20,000 to 40,000 individuals of Mexican and South American origin in the county. The numbers represent a surge in the percentage of the total population from 1.4% sixteen years ago to around 4% currently. There are concerns in the stories from new arrivals and, more importantly, issues in how government is reacting.

Immigrant Obstacle Course: (from the print edition) “Madison, they found, was peaceful. Calm. The houses all had running water and electricity. In the winter, everyone had heat. The schools were free.”

Our schools are most decidedly not free. If anything, Wisconsin public schools are unnecessarily expensive. Furthermore, no government benefits are without cost and almost all are funded by mandatory tax levies on citizen property and income. Kathleen Falk is the highest ranking elected Democrat in Dane County and as County Executive she has designed and is implementing the policy that citizen status is irrelevant.

Kathleen Falk: We created in Dane County an ordinance that prohibits County workers from inquiring about the legal status of the people we are serving, so that people do not need to be afraid to come to the County for help, with anything from economic assistance, child care and other human services programs, to our law enforcement and courts system.

Campaign Website: As County Executive, Kathleen has made sure that essentially all Department of Human Services programs and services are available to Dane County residents without regard to citizenship and documentation. … The County is currently implementing its countywide Limited English proficiency plan to provide better services to citizens who need language assistance in areas such as obtaining marriage licenses and other vital County documents and added two half time interpreter positions to serve residents in Court proceedings.

I believe this position is a logical derivative from a fundamental Democratic Party belief that, the proper role of government is to guarantee and administer solutions to the needs of individuals within their jurisdiction. In other words, resident persons subject to local law are subjects for equal treatment under the law. This, of course, is the opposite of the revolutionary American concept that humans are not subjects of the greater human power, but rather free citizens who construct and staff regulatory institutions by elective consent.

The Kathleen Falk idea that citizenship is irrelevant in operational practice, runs into logical conflict with the right of citizens to vote for government leadership. Quite simply, if foreign nationals can work, pay taxes, receive government benefits and services, then residence and not citizenship defines the relationship between individual and authority. If no other aspect of this interaction depends on citizenship, then why should voting?

Madison is run by Falk’s hand picked Mayor. The city Guide to the Election Process, also available in a Spanish Version, states that only US Citizens are eligible to vote, but the Registration Information requires only proof of residence. Furthermore, “Any commercial document that shows name and current address” is acceptable proof of residence. Does this mean that a job application from McDonalds or any other business is acceptable evidence of a right to vote? This is a good question to clarify with newly hired City Clerk Diane Hermann-Brown. The key follow up question is what steps are you taking to verify if residency equals citizenship for voter registration?