In one voice mail, which Evans played for The Washington Post and was first reported by WUSA9, a caller yells: “Where the hell do you get off letting illegals vote? This is the nation’s capital. You are traitors, traitors to our country.”
Evans said that employees have been encouraged to cover up any D.C. Board of Elections paraphernalia they may be wearing or holding while outside the office in case someone who opposes noncitizen voting directs their opinion toward a staffer. D.C. police spokesman Tom Lynch said in a statement Monday that officers would be near polling locations “ensuring safety for voters.”
These precautions come amid heightened concerns across the country that bitter partisanship could lead to disruptions at the polls, voter intimidation and potentially violent challenges to the November presidential election results. The D.C. Board of Elections added armed security to its office headquarters and mail ballot processing center this year, Evans said.
For the first time in this year’s D.C. primary election, noncitizen residents — some of whom have lived in the District for decades — will be allowed to cast a ballot.
The new D.C. law stipulates that noncitizens are eligible to vote if they are at least 18 years old as of Election Day, have been a D.C. resident for at least 30 days before the election, have not been deemed by a court legally incompetent to vote and are not claiming the right to vote in any state, territory or country. As of May 29, 523 noncitizen D.C. residents were registered to vote, said Sarah Graham, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Board of Elections.
The law has faced opposition from those who argue that noncitizens, regardless of how long they have lived and worked in this country, should not be able to vote. The U.S. House advanced a bill last month to block noncitizen voting in D.C., though it’s unlikely the bill will move forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Graham, the spokeswoman for the D.C. Board of Elections, estimates the office has received more than 60 calls and voice mails opposing the right of noncitizens to vote. As recently as Sunday, the anger made its way to an early-voting center at the Georgetown Library in the form of a chalk message that read: “VOTING NOT A RIGHT. IS A PRIVILEGE OF CITIZEN,” according to a photo shared by Evans.
Evans said election workers noticed a spike in angry calls after Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), shared a message on X criticizing noncitizen voting. He wrote that “Washington, D.C. is actively encouraging noncitizens to vote” and called it “absurd” above a photo of a pamphlet from the Board of Elections.
In a response to a request for comment, Steil said in a statement, “There is absolutely no place for violence or intimidation aimed at election workers.”
Steil’s message also misrepresented the D.C. Board of Elections’ role in the process, Evans said; her office was simply providing nonpartisan information to voters.
“I just wish people would appreciate the fact that we are merely doing our jobs. We are merely adhering to the law,” Evans said. “I think I would be in more trouble if I decided to pick and choose what laws we were going to enforce.”