By Steve Levy
Thousands of illegal aliens in New York are being registered to vote and they, and most other New Yorkers, don’t even know it.
The new Motor Voter Law passed by the state Legislature and then signed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) in 2020 automatically registered to vote anyone who obtains a New York State driver’s license. This was a major change from the previous law where you would have to affirmatively opt into the voting part by checking a box giving approval.
The new rules insanely grant automatic registered voting status once the driving app is filled out. The only way you wouldn’t become registered is if you checked the box to remain unregistered.
But we cannot forget that in 2019 New York joined a number of other liberal states around the nation in allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. https://www.ncsl.org/immigration/states-offering-drivers-licenses-to-immigrants
So, now we will have the case in New York where thousands of illegal aliens are becoming registered to vote even though they didn’t ask to, and probably don’t even know it.
So then, what happens when these illegal aliens obtain information in the mail from the local board of elections that they are registered to vote on Election Day?
Wouldn’t it be natural for them to believe that it’s all legal and that they have the ability to vote? After all, the state registered them and sent them a notice of where and when the election is happening. It would be rational for them to assume that they could just fill out a ballot and send it back or show up in person to vote.
There is no photo ID required at the election site. Thus, the inspectors could not distinguish between a citizen’s driver’s license, and that which belongs to a noncitizen. All the inspectors would see is that this individual is registered to vote.
Will all of those improper ballots be counted? Probably not, but many of them most definitely will. How many? We just don’t know. Some pundits claim there is no evidence of massive fraud. But let us not forget that many elections are determined by just a handful of votes. The 2000 presidential election tilted by a mere 500 votes in Florida.
Why would the Legislature allow this to happen? It’s not far-fetched to conclude that they really want to start counting the votes from illegal aliens. After all, we live in the state where the New York City Council has previously passed legislation allowing the undocumented to cast ballots. (That move was struck down by a state court.)
And isn’t that really the design behind the open borders policy being pushed by the Democratic administration? In California, more than one million illegal aliens have obtained driver’s licenses since 2015. Moreover, the state also automatically mails out ballots to residents whether they ask for them or not.
Thus, tens of thousands of illegal aliens, at a minimum, are receiving ballots from the state for the upcoming election at their homes. Why would the aliens think that they didn’t have the right to sign the ballot and send it back? In New York, it’s estimated that there are approximately 850,000 illegal immigrants residing within the state.
What’s appalling is that the people of New York overwhelmingly voted in 2021 to oppose a measure that would have dramatically expanded mail-in voting and other measures to weaken election integrity. Despite the objection of the people, the state Legislature and the Governor pushed forward just the same in implementing a massive new voting process defying the will of the people.
Voters saw that sleight-of-hand as it occurred over the last few years, but we would wager that very few are aware that illegal immigrants are now being automatically registered to vote. In a time where there is so much division and dissension within our state and nation about the integrity of our elections, why would our state Legislature be adding fuel to the fire?
Steve Levy (R-Bayport) is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as a Suffolk County Legislator from 1985 to 2000, as a New York State Assemblyman from 2001 to 2003, and as Suffolk County Executive from 2004 to 2011. He is the host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias inthe Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com