Also in today’s Jolt, a quick look at the coming argument that illegal immigrants voting in United States elections in violation of the law is a good thing:

The Pro-Illegal-Voting Advocates Begin to Speak
A letter to the editor in the Arizona Republic:
Mona Charen is worried about non-citizen immigrants voting fraudulently and tipping the scales of close elections, probably in favor of Democrats (“Voter ID laws help address election fraud,” Opinions, Thursday).
Even if the one study she references is correct, where’s the harm?
Considering the pitiful voter turnout among ID-holding voters, these “frauds” should be commended for risking prison time to participate in an election process that their citizen counterparts don’t care enough about to get off the couch or lick an envelope.
Those election criminals pay taxes and work low-wage jobs, their children attend our schools, and they join us in church. They are vested in the community, and if they vote, it shows.
And if their votes should change election results, fine. The citizen couch potatoes have no right to complain.
Let’s concede a molecule of agreement here, in that I can’t stand people who complain about government but don’t vote for the candidate they deem least contrary to their interests.
But . . . we, as American citizens, have the right to not vote. It can be interpreted as an assent to the status quo, or a disavowal of all of the options. If I move to a new community, and they’re holding local elections, and I know none of the candidates or issues, am I being a “couch potato” by not voting? Or simply responsible in choosing to not weigh in when I wouldn’t make an informed choice?
As for “where’s the harm?” — a gentle reminder that it’s against the law. And if non-citizens can vote, then we might as well outsource our governance to the United Nations. A core element of sovereignty is that the leadership of a particular country is chosen only by the citizens of that country — otherwise you might as well allow Russians to cross the border and vote in Ukrainian elections. For that matter, if there is no benefit to citizenship — i.e., the right to vote, a right that non-citizens do not get — then there is no value to it.
And if there’s no value to it . . . why be a citizen of the United States?