US Voters Face Ballot Measures on Noncitizen Voting and Federal Grant Control

In six US states—Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota, and West Virginia—voters are considering constitutional amendments to explicitly prohibit noncitizens from voting. While federal law already restricts noncitizen voting in federal elections, proponents of these measures, primarily Republicans, aim to prevent local municipalities from expanding voting rights to noncitizens in local elections.

Separately, a poll of registered voters in Iowa, Kansas, and Ohio indicates widespread opposition to a proposal by the Office of Management and Budget to increase political oversight of the federal grant-making process. The proposal would allow political appointees to have the final say on research awards at agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, potentially overriding the current peer-review system. The survey found that a majority of voters across party lines oppose political interference in federal research funding.