Saving Your Vote  by Tom Reynolds

SCOPE wrote about the politically motivated “1 Man 1 Vote” decision of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) under Earl Warren.  But the Democrat Party will never stop until they can completely obliterate any challenge to them at the polls.   

A 2021 New York City law aimed to create a class of voters eligible to vote in NY City municipal elections  but not state or federal elections.  (800,000 green card holders and illegal alien “DREAMers” who reside in New York City.)  Democrats assume these non-citizen voters will reward the Democrat Party that enfranchised them and vote Democrat.

Thus, votes by United States citizens would be offset by non-citizen votes.   

Thus, votes by people who were born in the USA or have sworn allegiance to the USA and forsaken any allegiance to a foreign power would be offset by people owing no allegiance to our Constitution, history, values and traditions.

The bill first became law automatically after former Mayor Bill de Blasio and current Mayor Eric Adams both declined to either sign or veto it. De Blasio had openly expressed concerns “big legal questions.”

The law was challenged I court.  Vito J. Fossella et al. v Eric Adams etc. et al., centered on the interpretation of Article II, Section 1, and Article IX of the New York State Constitution, which references “citizens.”

Article II, Section 1, of the New York State Constitution states "Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all officers elected by the people...provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty days next preceding an election."

Election Law § 5-102(1) also states “[n]o person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless he (she)is a citizen of the United States."

Seems pretty clear that one needs to be a citizen to vote in any New York election.  But clarity never stopped the Democrat Party leadership so the law was passed and the Fossella lawsuit against it was filed.

Staten Island State Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio ruled in June 2022 that the law was illegal.  (It would seem to have been an easy call.)

But NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council attempted to overturn the ruling since they were ‘playing with house money’ (taxpayer money) and Fossella had to be financed privately.  Adams et al appealed.

Recently, in a 43-page order authored by Associate Justice Paul Wooten of the Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department in New York the lower court’s ruling against the law was upheld, by a 3-1 majority decision. (3-1?  One judge didn’t believe citizen meant citizen?)

Wooten wrote: "Thus, pursuant to the New York State Election Law, eligibility to vote in a municipal election is dependent upon United States citizenship."  In addition, and contrary to a dissenting opinion, Wooten noted there is not "any legislative history reflecting an intent to confer upon municipalities the power to make noncitizens eligible to vote."

"The plain language of this provision provides that the right to vote in 'every election for all officers elected by the people' is available exclusively to 'citizen[s],' as there is no reference to noncitizens, and thus, an irrefutable inference applies that noncitizens were intended to be excluded from those individuals entitled to vote in elections," Wooten surmised. 

If the law had not been ruled unconstitutional, can there be any doubt that Democrat strongholds elsewhere in New York State would have passed similar laws?  Non-Democrat votes would have been further disenfranchised which was, of course, the whole purpose of the law.

Will Adams and company seek to further appeal this decision since, as stated earlier, they are ‘playing with house money’?

There is an interesting twist to this.  Adams is complaining that NY City is being driven broke by the cost of subsidizing illegal aliens.  If the law had not been annulled, those same illegal aliens would have been voting in NY City on even more subsidies for the illegal aliens.

Of course, Mayor Adams knows that the illegal alien problem is Donald Trump’s fault.  (Sarcasm intended.)