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A reader writes on immigration and the Electoral College

By James Fulford

I was reading D. W. Brogan's Politics In America http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060104953/vdare. He wrote that in the 1920s or 1930s a proposal was made to reduce the size of Alabama's congressional delegation to reflect the disenfranchisement of its black population. Senator Hugo Black suggested in response that New York State's delegation might be reduced in proportion to the number of resident aliens.

It hadn't occurred to me that resident aliens had Congressional representation, but they do.

And they form a not-insignificant part of the Electoral College, especially in California.

Here are some very rough figures, with links to the official figures:

Ten million legal residents are twenty electoral votes, and 5,000,000 illegals are ten electoral votes, assuming that the Census has counted them somehow in 1996, but only when they get past 500,000 per state do they show up in the Electoral College.

California has 5.7 Million alien residents, so 11 of its 54 votes are a result of a combination of the 1965 Immigration Act and poor Border Patrol funding.

Florida has 790,000 legals and 350,000 illegals for 2 electoral votes.

New Jersey's legal total would come to less than one electoral vote or congressman, but the state's 135,000 illegals put the resident alien population over the requisite half million.

Of course, it's illegal for any of these people actually to vote in the Presidential election, but many of them are registered to vote anyway.

Electoral College, list of states and votes

http://www.nara.gov/fedreg/elctcoll/votebyst.html

Legal Alien Resident Population, by state

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/lprest.htm

Illegal Alien Resident Population, by state

http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/aboutins/statistics/illegalalien/index.htm

Boston Globe, November, 2000: Immigrant Voter Surge Seen Aiding Gore - Record Number Enrolled After Backlog by Walter W. Robinson

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/309/nation/
Immigrant_voter_surge_seen_aiding_Gore+.shtml

November 6, 2000