Voters at the Wilmar Neighborhood Center on Madison's East side cast their ballots. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

A ballot measure in Wisconsin asking to change one word in the state constitution to prevent non-U.S. citizens from voting in any local, state or federal elections has passed. The effort was the Republican Legislature’s fifth attempt to amend the state constitution this year. 

The Associated Press called the outcome at 9:42 p.m. Tuesday. With about 72% of the ballots counted by 11 p.m., “yes” was leading with 70% of the vote to 30% in opposition.

Republicans pointed to a handful of municipalities across the country that have allowed non-citizens to vote in municipal elections like school board races and said the amendment would prevent any Wisconsin communities from doing the same. 

“Addressing this issue now will ensure votes are not diluted in the future,” Sen. Julian Bradley (R-Franklin) told Votebeat. “It’s best for the government to address this concern before it becomes a problem.”

Democrats and voting rights advocates said that non-citizen voting isn’t a real problem and that Republicans have shown no proof it is but continue to complain about it as part of their general anti-immigration push in this election. Plus, they said, making changes like this by trying to amend the constitution makes an end run around the normal legislative process and Gov. Tony Evers’ potential veto, while making the state vulnerable to future efforts to make it harder for legal voters to cast a ballot. 

“First and foremost, we have a system that works, and I think this is a solution in search for problems,” T.R. Edwards, staff attorney at the voting rights focused Law Forward, said. “Secondarily, it shifts the burden to the voter. … But then third, I think it’s yet another vestige of our gerrymandered Legislature and an escape to actually go through the legislative process to do things that have an actual debate about what works for our state.” 

Currently the state Constitution says that “every United States citizen age 18 or older” can vote. The amendment changes the word “every” to “only.” 

“Shall section 1 of article III of the constitution, which deals with suffrage, be amended to provide that only a United States citizen age 18 or older who resides in an election district may vote in an election for national, state, or local office or at a statewide or local referendum?” the referendum asked voters. 

Recently, Republicans have moved across the country to warn about large-scale non-citizen voting in ways that would swing elections. Yet studies of the voting system across dozens of communities involving millions of votes have found just a handful of cases of non-citizens casting ballots. 

Earlier this year, Congress was unable to pass a federal budget over disagreements about a bill that would require citizens to prove their citizenship to register to vote.