San Francisco Spends $310,000 Accommodating Noncitizen Voters — but Only 49 Register

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Back in 2016, San Francisco residents voted to allow non-citizens — including illegal aliens — who have children in the city’s school system to vote in school board elections. Since then, the city has spent about $310,000 setting up a new registration system to accommodate these voters and encourage noncitizens to register to vote.

But despite spending all that money to entice noncitizens to vote in the November 6 school board election, only 49 have signed up so far.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that city Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer urged the city to spend as much as $500,000 to warn illegal aliens (which she termed “undocumented residents”) that registering to vote could alert ICE to their presence. Then there was this statement on the Department of Elections website: “Any information you provide to the Department of Elections, including your name and address, may be obtained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies, organizations and individuals.”

While not all noncitizens are in this country illegally, it is obvious from Fewer’s request and the Department of Elections website that city officials are well aware that a considerable number of illegals will be among these potential voters.

“We assumed that it would be many thousands, potentially that could register, and so far we’re at 49,” San Francisco Director of Elections John Arntz said to the city’s CBS News affiliate.

As the Los Angeles Times observed in an October 26 article:

California has gone further than any other state in offering opportunities to those here illegally, including providing special driver’s licenses, college tuition breaks and child healthcare. Voting has been a more sensitive topic, but experts said it fits both the larger political trends in California as well as the conservative backlash.

The Times article quoted a statement from Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, a Claremont, California-based organization that lobbies for stricter immigration enforcement.

“Noncitizen voting is a very contentious issue,” Hvidston said. “The move to extend voting rights to those illegally residing in San Francisco has the potential to backfire among citizens with a moderate stance on illegal immigration.”

Conservatives have expressed outrage over San Francisco’s actions. A tweet posted last week by World Net Daily read: “The gates have now been opened to letting non-citizens vote. Is this the beginning of the end?”