You’ve got to be an American citizen to legally contribute to an American political campaign or PAC. That’s a good law, in my view. Casting a vote is a right based on citizenship, and non-citizens shouldn’t be able to vote or buy votes or buy elections in other countries.
The right to vote, on the other hand, is a universalright, recognized as such Article 21(3) of the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a declaration drafted by an American-chaired committee and supported by an American vote when ratified in the UN General Assembly.
This declaration of rights is as American as Apple Pie
21 (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Although most members of KOS are American citizens, it’s clear that many are not. Some of these not-Americans have always lived outside the USA, others are residents of the USA — legal or otherwise — but not citizens. There is a way that these KOS members — banned from making political donations — can donate to an American organization whose mission is to make sure that American citizens are able to exercise the right to vote as proscribed by both American law and the UN Universal declaration.
There is another diary on KOS today celebrating the work of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) which “works with formerly incarcerated citizens in restoring their voting rights.” This coalition helps former Florida felons who have been denied the vote because they have (or fear they have) outstanding fines and court costs hanging over their heads.
The FRCC provides both legal assistance and — if legal research confirms fines are owing — financial assistance clearing up fines and court costs. A lawyer-certified “clean slate” enables former felons to participate in the election, confident they will not be turned away (or arrested) for trying to vote this fall when not technically eligible.
I’m not an American citizen — in my family that ended when my father was required to choose his Canadian father’s citizenship to qualify for officer training in the Canadian military in WWII. (At a time when Canada was already bombing Hitler’s war factories while the isolationist United States — firmly in the grip of the original “America Firsters”— was still all “Hitler isn’t that bad” neutral… but that’s another story.)
The point of this diary is to urge the non-Americans in this group — banned from partisan donations in the USA — to support the enforcement of universal human rights in Florida by sending an online donation to FRRC at:
I did
AFTERTHOUGHT
If you are an American citizen and have non-citizen friends (domestic or overseas) who are constantly lamenting “America’s a mess… I wish I could help,” here’s a suggestion: Send your friend(s) to wegotthevote.org/...