Civil rights commissioner warns of illegals voting under Obama amnesty

Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow warned Congress on Wednesday that President Obama’s deportation amnesty program, which will allow illegal immigrants to get Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses, will make it much easier for them to register and vote in U.S. elections — despite being ineligible to do so.

Peter Kirsanow, a Bush appointee to the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights who has warned of dangers from mass illegal immigration, said the federal government does a poor job of helping states try to weed out ineligible voters, and once they have driver’s licenses and Social Security numbers it’s nearly impossible for states to spot them on their own.

“Even if an ineligible voter does not sway the outcome of an election, his vote still chips away at the legitimacy of the voting system,” Mr. Kirsanow said in a letter to congressional leaders. “Every person who votes despite being ineligible cancels out the vote of an eligible voter.”

The House Judiciary Committee earlier this month held a hearing that included testimony from secretaries of state in Ohio and Kansas who both said illegal immigrants voting would become a bigger problem with Mr. Obama’s new immigration policies, which call for granting a proactive stay of deportation and three years’ legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.

The amnesty program has been halted by a federal judge, though the administration has appealed.

Maine’s secretary of state, who also testified at this month’s hearing, said illegal voting wasn’t a major issue for his state, and he doubted the amnesty would create the situation the others warned of.

Mr. Kirsanow, though, said past evidence of non-citizens still trying to vote suggests the amnesty will be a problem. And he said the mere presence of illegal immigrants, even if it doesn’t lead to them voting, still sways the political system because they are counted in the census, which helps determine which states get more representatives in Congress.

It also takes fewer votes to win House elections in states that have a high number of illegal immigrants — meaning that a winning candidate for a House seat in Mississippi takes more votes than it does to win a seat in a House race in California.