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Lawmakers in South Carolina have added a major election integrity measure to the November ballot that would only allow American citizens to vote in all state elections.

The Citizens Only Voting Amendment would alter the state’s constitution. The measure passed the South Carolina House of Representatives on a 105-0 vote on May 2. Senate Joint Resolution 1126 passed the Senate last month by a 40-3 vote, according to Legal Newsline.

“Today, South Carolina took an important step forward in defending the value of citizenship,” Senator Josh Kimbrell, the bill’s author, said. “We will never allow a non-citizen to vote in any election in our state, but we will make it easy for legal, law-abiding citizens of the United States and of our state to vote in all our elections. Citizenship matters and this vote proves that point.”

Kimbrell, a Republican from Spartanburg, anticipates that voters will approve of the amendment this autumn. Recent polling indicates that at least 80 percent of South Carolinians endorse the change. A simple majority of voters in the November general election is all that is required to pass the amendment.

“This is something that everyone should agree with,” Kimbrell said. “This is not a partisan issue. Protecting voting rights is important. We shouldn’t have people who aren’t citizens of South Carolina or the country voting in any election, whether it’s a school board race, a city election or a statewide race.

“We’re just trying to eliminate any ambiguity here. We don’t want there to be any legal way to interpret the constitution that would allow this to happen,” he added.

The amendment only calls for changing a few words in the state’s constitution.

Instead of “Every citizen of …,” the amendment would change it to, “Only a citizen of the United States and of this state of the age of eighteen and upwards who is properly registered is entitled to vote as provided by law.”

“This is a tremendous victory for the citizens of South Carolina,” Americans for Citizen Voting President Avi McCullah has said. His organization assists states in crafting appropriate legislation to ensure that only citizens are voting in their elections.

“Most state constitutions do not specifically prohibit foreign citizen voting,” McCullah said. “Many people, even legislators, are unaware of this fact.”

The news outlet noted further:

In March, Idaho lawmakers passed a similar measure to join Iowa, Kentucky and Wisconsin whose voters will have similar measures on the ballot this November.

In recent years, city councils in New York, Washington and three cities in Vermont have voted to legalize foreign citizen voting. They join cities in California, Illinois and Maryland that, because of a loophole in their state constitutions, also allow foreign citizens to vote.

If approved by voters, South Carolina – as well as Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky and Wisconsin – will join 11 states whose constitutions reserve the right to vote for only citizens of the United States. In recent years, the following states have passed these amendments: Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio and North Dakota. Similar efforts are underway in Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia, the outlet noted.

Last month, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals made a decision that could have an impact on the swing state of Pennsylvania, as well as other swing states, a huge victory for Republicans seeking voter integrity.

The court overturned the order of a federal district court and ruled in favor of the Republican National Committee (RNC) regarding signature verification for mail-in voting in the “crucial” state of Pennsylvania.

According to NPR, the case revolved around whether mail-in ballots that were mailed on time but either had an incorrect date or no date at all under the voter’s signature should be counted.

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