The House of Representatives voted to repeal a law that allows non-citizens to vote in local elections

House Republicans led a attempt Tuesday to overturn the controversial District of Columbia lawthat allows those who are not US citizens to vote in local elections in Washington, with a final vote of 266 in favor of repeal to just 148 votes against. While the vote had as a striking detail the fact that dozens of Democratic congressmen decided to join with the Republicans, the fact is that the measure must still be decided in the Senate.

Republican congressmen argued on several occasions thatthe law was extremely "dangerous", and explained that it created opportunities for numerous types of abuses, including the possibility that some diplomat from a foreign country could cast his vote in local elections. "We should not allow foreign entities hostile to the United States to vote in our elections. Period. We should not allow illegal immigrants to vote in our elections," said Indiana Republican Rep. Erin Houchin.

Senate optimism.

Several of the Democrats who opposed the legislation explained that, while they did not advocate voting by noncitizens, their position represented advocacy for the district's own right to self-govern. One of the Democratic figures who voiced this argument was Florida Representative Maxwell Frost, who explained that "We’re not voting to give noncitizens the ability to vote, we’re just saying let D.C. make their own laws."

For his part, Wisconsin Republican Rep. Bryan Steil commented that many of his constituentscouldn't believe that non-citizens could vote in local elections. "What the Democrats want to do is use Washington, D.C., as a petri dish for liberalizing voting laws across the country. We need to make sure that U.S. elections are for U.S. citizens," the conservative leader told reporters, adding that he was very optimistic that Republicans in the Senate could finally push the bill through despite Democratic obstructionism.