Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen has championed the passage of a bill that will ban the use of a foreign ID for voting purposes.
Senate Bill 158, sponsored by state Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, passed in the Alabama House of Representatives Wednesday. The bill will prohibit the use of a foreign national ID or driver’s license as a valid form of identification when voting in state elections.
SB158 passed 82-13 and will now go to Gov. Kay Ivey to be signed into law.
In a Thursday press release, Allen called the bill’s passage “a great day” for the state of Alabama.
“Ensuring that only American citizens are voting in our elections has been a top priority of mine since day one. This legislation helps defeat noncitizen attempts to dilute the vote of legal American citizens and strengthens Alabama’s safeguards against noncitizen voting. It promotes fair, secure, and transparent elections that Alabama voters deserve,” Allen said.
“Foreign nationals are prohibited under both federal and Alabama law from registering to vote and voting. Until now, Alabama law did not specifically exclude foreign national driver licenses from being used as a valid photo voter identification,” he continued.
Allen argued the law, alongside voter registration policies implemented by his office, will make instances of voter fraud more clear-cut and make it clearer for local election officials who is and isn’t allowed to vote in an election.
“As Secretary, I have strengthened our voter registration policies by requiring a verifiable Alabama driver license number or social security number at the time of registration, making it impossible for a noncitizen to register to vote without committing blatant fraud,” Allen said. “Now, SB158 will give our local election officials definitive backing to deny someone attempting to vote with a foreign national driver license and eliminate any confusion about what is and is not acceptable.”
House Democrats, meanwhile, criticized the necessity of further regulating foreign national ID use during debate on SB158 and its partner bill HB480, sponsored by state Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris.
“Our citizens might think that there’s a problem with foreign nationalists using any form of ID they might have gotten from this country to register to vote,” said Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham. “But we don’t even have enough documentation to show where a foreign national would even try to register, let alone vote in the United States.”
SB158 also provides guidelines for a foreign national to apply for an Alabama license which designates their status as a non-U.S. citizen. Foreign nationals must provide their country of origin and the expiration date of their immigration documentation to apply for such a license.
The bill specifies that applications for noncitizen licenses will be processed “only at driver license offices designated by the Secretary of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency.”
SB158’s passage comes as Florida has also attempted to alter the way driver licenses function for noncitizens in the state.
This includes Florida’s SB1258, sponsored by state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, which would similarly add a noncitizen designation on driver license for foreign nationals legally residing in the state. The bill has drawn criticism from the Florida ACLU who likened the noncitizen designation to placing a “scarlet letter” on noncitizens residing in Florida.
According to the Florida Senate’s website, SB1258 and its House counterpart have not passed committee and have been placed indefinitely on hold.
However, on Monday, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles enacted a policy requiring all foreign nationals legally residing in the state, with the exception of green card holders, to update their driver licenses annually.
According to the National Immigration Law Center, 19 states and Washington D.C. currently offer driver licenses regardless of one’s immigration status.
