Constitutional amendment J is about who controls elections

John’s note: the is the second of a series on the constitutional amendments that will be on our ballots in November. Amendment J is a blanket ban on non-citizens voting in state and local elections in South Dakota.

First off, under current state law, I think constitutional amendment J is probably unnecessary in South Dakota. On a federal level, non-citizens, since the 1920s, have already been barred from voting in federal elections. Amendment J codifies and extends that denial to South Dakota state and local elections. But, since U.S. citizenship is already required to register to vote in this state, I don’t get why we need a constitutional amendment that is essentially redundant.  

My beef with this amendment is that it takes local decision-making away from localities that  want to make their own decisions about who gets to vote in their elections. There are jurisdictions around the United States that allow non-citizens who reside here legally to vote in local elections, probably on the basis that many of these people live, work, pay taxes, and generally participate in local life alongside American citizens.They’re stakeholders and taxpayers in their communities and it seems reasonable that they should be able to have their say in local elections.

I think local communities should have the option of deciding who can vote in their elections. I don’t want to see a constitutional amendment that denies localities the chance to make that decision. 

I’m voting no on constitutional amendment J.

John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.      

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons

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