What percent of all U.S. eligible voters are foreign born?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
What percent of eligible voters in the 2022 U.S. election were born in a foreign country?
Describe the change in foreign-born voters since 2020?
Why has the percentage of foreign-born voters changed?
People born in the U.S. or to U.S. parents are known as natural-born citizens and are eligible to vote in the United States when they turn 18. People who were born in a foreign country, for example Canada or Haiti, moved to the United States, and went through a lengthy and difficult process can become naturalized U.S. Citizens. One of the rights that comes with all citizenship is voting. Do you think that naturalized citizens - people born outside of the United States - should have the right to vote?
Based on the numbers from the visual above, make a prediction about what percent of voters in the 2024 election will be foreign born.
Among naturalized citizen eligible voters, more than half (55%) live in just four states: California, Florida, New York and Texas (see visual below)*. California and New York are both majority Democratic voter states. Texas is majority Republican state. Florida is what is known as a swing-state: evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters. Explain how the geographic distribution of foreign born voters impacts the influence of foreign born voters on the presidential election.
The naturalized citizen electorate differs from the U.S.-born electorate on a variety of demographic measures. Immigrant eligible voters skew older than their U.S.-born counterparts. They’re also somewhat more likely to have a bachelor’s degree, live in households with slightly higher incomes and have lower levels of English proficiency. How do you think those differences will impact how naturalized citizens vote and whether they will be more likely to support Donald J. Trump or Kamala Harris in the 2024 election?
Foreign born citizens can vote, run for Senate, serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, but they cannot run for president. Do you think naturalized citizens should be eligible to become president?
We let people who have just moved from one state to another vote in that state’s election. We let people vote in local elections wherever they live regardless of how long they have lived there. Why don’t we let non-citizens who live in the United States vote? After all, they live here, and they work and pay taxes at the same rate as native-born citizens. Why should voting be contingent upon citizenship?
Despite the fact that it has long been illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections and there is no credible evidence showing it happens in significant numbers, the false claim that illegal immigrants are voting has continued to gain momentum. Why do you think some people are making this false claim about voting?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
If you will be 18 years old by election day and are an eligible voter go online and register to vote. It will take less than 2 minutes. It’s not too late. If you are not 18 find someone who is 18 and convince them to vote the way you would vote if you could. If you can’t convince them with logic, ask them really nicely. If that doesn’t work, beg them to vote.
Get Creative
I was surprised to learn that in the upcoming election, roughly 10% of eligible voters were foreign-born. Here’s another 10% that surprised me. about 10% of millennials (people age 28 – 43) own a pet lizard. Also, annually 10% of all American workers do not take a single vacation day. What is something else that is about ten percent of something that surprises you?