Good Question Re: Iraqi Voting

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

Anyone know the answer to Thomas Schaller’s questions?

Of the 234,000 [Iraqis eligible to vote] living in the United States right now, only 90,000 are estimated to be foreign-born (presumably in Iraq); the remaining 140,000 or so were born here.

At what point does your foreign voting eligibility cease, may I ask?

For instance, if your grandparents were Iraqi refugees, but both you and your parents were born here, should you be eligible? (Sidebar: Notice how conservatives don’t talk about first-generation U.S.-born Iraqi children of refugees in that smarmy, they’re-draining-our-social-services way that, say, children of illegal Mexican immigrants who are cleaning the baskets for sub-minimum wage off the payrolls are derided.)

I’m no expert in international election law – somebody, please, help – but it seems to me you vote in one country or the other. Are these U.S.-born children of Iraqi defectors, refugees, and immigrants voting in the United States, too?