San Francisco Spends More Than $385,000 to Register 61 Non-Citizen Voters

The city of San Francisco spent more than $385,000 to register non-citizen voters, but only 61 of those voters signed up to vote Tuesday in time for the midterm elections.

John Arntz, the director of the San Francisco Department of Elections, confirmed with Breitbart News on Tuesday morning that the city registered 61 non-citizens to vote in local school board races, and reports say those votes came with a hefty price tag.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that the city spent $6,326 per non-citizen voter— a total of $385,886 for 61 voters—to get them to vote in the school board elections.

Part of the high price tag for votes came from having to set up a separate registration for non-citizens who cannot under federal law vote in federal elections.

“We had to create a separate database,” Arntz said, according to the Sacramento Bee. “We created a separate ballot for these folks. We have separate roster pages for the polling places, we have a separate registration affidavit. We have a separate vote by mail ballot application, we have a separate website page.”

The city’s department of elections began registering non-citizens to vote in July, after residents approved “Proposition N” in 2016, giving non-citizens—including illegal aliens— the ability to vote in some local elections.

But the San Francisco Department of Elections website warned potential voters that their voter registration information might be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“In addition, if you apply for naturalization, you will be asked whether you have ever registered or voted in a federal, state, or local election in the United States,” the website says.

San Francisco followed the lead of Chicago, Illinois; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and several cities in Maryland in allowing non-citizens to vote in school board or municipal elections.