The Republican National Committee is suing New York City Mayor Eric Adams over the new law that will allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
The lawsuit was announced Monday. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel tweeted an official statement, saying, “American elections should be decided by American citizens. If Democrats can subvert elections this flagrantly in America’s largest city, they can do it anywhere”.
“The RNC is suing to protect the integrity of our elections, and we stand ready to do the same wherever Democrats try to attack the basic security of your ballot,” she continued.
The lawsuit claims that the new law is in violation of both the state Constitution and state election laws.
“This law creates a new class of persons called ‘municipal voters’ who are non-citizens who are either lawful permanent residents or persons authorized to work in the United States, who except for their lack of United States citizenship would be qualified to register to vote,” the suit said.
The suit also alleges the new law will “dilute the votes of United States citizens” and “cause an abrupt and sizeable change to the makeup of the electorate, which will force the elective-officeholder Plaintiffs to change the way that they campaign for office and will materially affect their likelihood of future electoral victory”.
Adams recently defended the new law, which gives roughly 800,000 legal non-citizens the right to vote in local elections.
On CNN’s “State of the Union”, Adams was asked about his previous view on the bill. The mayor said “I did not change my mind”. “I supported the concept of the bill”.
Adams explained that his only concern was with the part that requires the legal non-citizen to have lived in the city for at least 30 days. After speaking with his colleagues, Adams decided it was “more important not to veto the bill or get in the way at all, allow the bill to move forward”.
“I think it is imperative that people who are in a local municipality have the right to decide who is going to govern them,” the mayor said.
