What’s on your ballot?

Thank you to our partners at AIRR and ACLU of Kansas for partnering with us in July to create and deliver an informative presentation on the processes and value of civic engagement. This event was open to all members of the community regardless of their eligibility to vote, and one of the audience questions we received was regarding permanent residents and whether they could vote. The audience member noted that driver's licenses can be used as a form of ID and thought that their spouse, who is a Permanent Resident, might be able to vote. Here was our response:

It's important to remember that even as an immigrant with legal status, you must be a citizen to be eligible to vote. Most immigrants already know this, and despite the rhetoric pushed by some politicians, there is a very low occurrence of immigrants committing voter fraud. When it does happen, it's usually by people like our audience members who are confused and don't know the technicalities. By voting as anything other than a citizen, you are falsely claiming to be a citizen; people can lose their green cards and be deported for this, so most immigrants don't knowingly put themselves in such a position of risk. Check out this true story.