The witch hunt for non-citizens lurking on voter rolls and compromising elections turned up short in Tennessee this week. According to the Tennesseean, an “outgoing” Davidson County, Tenn. election commissioner’s estimate of thousands of non-citizens on the county voter rolls turned out to be just 14 “potential non-citizens.”
So here’s the most pressing question raised by this report (and many others like it in recent years): what exactly is a “potential non-citizen”? Someone with a “foreign” sounding surname? Someone with an accent? Someone who lives in a known “ethnic” neighborhood? Those who so casually throw out these nightmare numbers of non-citizen voters are the same politicians who are quick to demand proof of a voter’s identity and citizenship. Isn’t it about time we demanded proof of their allegations?
Photo by Brendan Loy via Creative Commons
