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A group of University of Colorado students have stirred up controversy with their votes in the upcoming presidential election, saying that by collaborating with non-citizens, they are giving a voice to the underrepresented.
Jennifer Bockelman came up with the idea for the group Voters Without Borders when she realized she was not as informed as her political junkie friend Mariana Vieira, a non-citizen from Brazil living in the United States.
“We’re voting together,” Bockelman said. “I’m consulting her and the she’s informing my point of view, and then I’m going to go and vote.”
Bockelman created a Voters Without Borders Facebook group to inform others of her idea, which she said is not an exercise in which individuals simply give over their vote to a non-citizen.
“I encourage people to collaboratively decide,” Bockelman said. “I think it’s important that we consult with people from other countries to find out exactly how the votes that we make influence the rest of the world.”
Bockelman has been met with enthusiasm from non-citizens like Vieira, who pay taxes and are affected by U.S. governmental decisions, but are not able to vote.
Critics of the project question why non-citizens are consulted at all when only citizens have the right to vote.
As a non-citizen himself, University of Wisconsin journalism and mass communication professor Dietram Scheufele finds Voters Without Borders an interesting — if problematic — concept.
“I personally think it’s an intriguing idea, but one [that] makes very little sense either constitutionally or from a campaign perspective,” Scheufele said, citing John Kerry’s 2004 campaign, which boasted support from many foreign leaders over the re-election of George W. Bush.
“That didn’t help him at all, in fact that hurt his campaign because the last thing that most Americans like to see is the French or anybody else telling them who to elect as president,” Scheufele said.
UW political science professor Kenneth Mayer agreed the project’s proposal is controversial.
“People who are affected by policy have opportunities to speak out, but the right to vote is not assigned on the basis of taxes or loyalty, it’s assigned on the basis of citizenship,” Mayer said.
Scheufele said that although non-citizens are subject to taxes and policy decisions, they must accept those consequences of choosing to live and work in the United States.
“When it comes to influencing the decisions of the country, I think it’s a very important commitment to make, to be a citizen first, before you start making decisions about the long-term health of the country,” Scheufele said.
Students on both ends of the political spectrum stand divided over the issue.
“I think that your vote should be your decision and your decision alone,” said UW College Republicans Chair Sara Mikolajczak. “You should research both candidates and figure out whatever facts you need to in order to make an informed decision.”
UW College Democrats Chair Claire Rydell said she thinks the initiative could be an important step for citizens to become informed in a global community.
“It’s not as if [non-citizens] are casting a ballot, it’s simply encouraging dialogue and discussion,” Rydell said. “They are acknowledging that global perspectives are important and that discussion and dialogue between people of different nationalities makes one a more educated person and therefore a more educated voter.”
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I think this is a great idea! What we do in our country affects everyone in the world, so we might as well consult them before electing our leaders. As Claire said in the article, it’s not as if non-citizens are casting a ballot. If the citizen disagrees with the non-citizen they are free to make their own choice. How can anything that encourages political discourse be considered a bad thing?
I too think this is a great idea. Besides there are numerous people who do not even vote when given the chance, so why not let others, who have a voice but can’t vote, speak?