‘How Do You Monitor That?’: Burgess, Raksin, Biggs Discuss DC Voting Rules For Non-Citizen Diplomats

6 months ago

During a House Rules Committee hearing last week, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) & Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) discussed Washington, DC voting rules for diplomats.

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Transcript

00:00 Chair, thanks.

00:01 General Jones yields back.

00:02 Mr. Binks, let me just ask you, I think you referenced in your comments that a diplomat,

00:11 that would be a citizen of a foreign country who is residing in D.C. doing their diplomatic

00:16 work would be eligible to vote in the D.C. election.

00:19 Did I understand you correctly?

00:20 Yes, sir.

00:21 It would.

00:22 Even the Washington Post agrees with that assessment and so noted, which is why the

00:26 Washington Post opposed the D.C. Act.

00:29 So there would be no requirement that there be a non-adversarial diplomat.

00:34 An adversarial diplomat could vote just the same as a friendly diplomat.

00:38 Yes, sir, that's correct.

00:40 And that's why, what makes D.C. a little bit more pernicious than some of the others is

00:44 Maryland has certain restrictions, California has restrictions on non-citizens who are voting,

00:51 who are residents, but D.C. does not.

00:57 The D.C. law says that you cannot be voting in any other country.

01:02 So if somebody were voting in another country, they would not be allowed to vote in the Advisory

01:06 Neighborhood Commission elections in D.C. or for the D.C. Council.

01:10 If I may respond to that, that's interesting because some nations that are authoritarian

01:16 in nature, you would question, for instance, whether they're actually voting in another

01:22 jurisdiction, and how are we going to monitor that?

01:26 Well, that was going to be my—how do you monitor that?

01:30 If you read the D.C. law, what it says is that you can't be voting in another country,

01:34 and this is punishable by five years in prison for fraud.

01:38 So if it meant that much to you, I suppose you could be voting in Russia or China and

01:44 then sign up to vote in the D.C. school board elections.

01:47 But if you did and you were found out, you could be prosecuted and sent to jail for five

01:52 years.

01:53 So I doubt that any of those 512 people who signed up are agents of foreign governments.

01:59 In any event, federally and across the country, people who are registered foreign agents under

02:07 FERA can vote.

02:10 And people who've been convicted of offenses involving foreign agents like Michael Flynn

02:14 or Paul Manafort, they still vote.

02:17 And maybe we should reconsider that, but that strikes me as a bigger threat and something

02:22 we could do something about in elections that means something to the country.

02:26 Well, it means—if I may—I mean, it does—that means 512 people have their votes canceled

02:32 out, perhaps, at least theoretically.

02:35 So it should mean something to the voters of the city, should it not?

02:39 Mr. Chairman, I think it does.

02:41 I think it says something about the integrity of the entire election and the foundation

02:44 of it.

02:45 But more so, the argument would be made and could be made that there's dilution of your

02:51 vote.

02:52 Now, 512, if that's the actual number, that's not much dilution, which is what the court

02:56 actually held here in D.C.

02:58 But the reality is, we're not—I'm not sure we're sure.

03:04 I mean, I'm looking at the postcard that was sent out by the Elections Commission here

03:10 in D.C.

03:11 If you want to register to vote, you just do the QR code.

03:16 And so that makes it very interesting on who's registering to vote as well, Mr. Chairman.

‘How Do You Monitor That?’: Burgess, Raksin, Biggs Discuss DC Voting Rules For Non-Citizen Diplomats

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