***Article first published by 'Maine First media' on July 19, 2018***

We’ve long said the push to bring more foreigners to Maine is about two things:

Ethan Strimling and an immigrant Portland City Council member are proving our point as they renew their efforts to grant voting rights to non-citizens.

There is a proposal circulating the Harboring Haven of Portland that would allow non-citizens to vote in municipal elections. The proposal is backed by Portland Mayor, Ethan Strimling and Muslim, Councilor Pious Ali from Ghana.

If the proposal succeeds, refugees and asylum seekers would be allowed to vote for City Councilors, school board members, school budget and city referendums.

“This has been the end goal since day one of the open-borders movement,” said Maine First Project President, Rep. Larry Lockman (R-Amherst). “Radicals on the Left are willing to prioritize non-citizens and even illegals, all to secure more votes for their open-borders policies. They ignore the massive costs Mainers pay for illegal immigration and the refugee resettlement racket. They ignore the burden in places on our school systems. They ignore the security risks. They’re okay putting the safety of Maine families on the line, as long as they get the non-citizen votes.”

In order to make this unconstitutional change, the Portland City Charter would have to be amended.

At the August 13th Portland City Council meeting, Councilors will vote on whether the proposal should be brought to voters. If the Leftist council approves (which they almost assuredly will) the proposition would then go to a citywide vote. If Portland voters approve the measure, it would likely then be challenged in the courts for violating state law — by granting voting rights to non-citizens.

The Portland Press Harald spoke to some of the City Council members, and as you would guess, they’re largely supportive of the idea. And why wouldn’t they be, this proposal would do nothing but enroll more Democrat voters who like Big Government handouts.

However, Councilor Kim Cook said she wouldn’t be supporting the proposal, as voting rights are a privilege that comes with citizenship.

LePage spokeswoman, Julie Rabinowitz, says Maine state law explicitly spells out that only citizens can register to vote. She said the City Charter change would violate state law and be ground for legal challenges. But the legalities aren’t the only problem.

“Let’s look at what’s happened,” Rep. Lockman said. “We provide welfare privileges to non-citizens and even illegals. That attracts a flood of more ‘new Mainers’ into the state. Portland adopts Harboring Haven policies, putting their own citizens at risk — but it attracts more ‘new Mainers.’ Giving voting rights to non-citizens will be the ultimate magnet attracting more non-citizens and more illegals. And who pays for it, Mainers.”

This is not the first time Portland’s open-borders crowd has pushed to grant voting rights for non-Mainers. In fact, this will be the third attempt to give voting rights to non-citizens in Portland like they do in San Francisco and Chicago.

Former Democrat State Sen. Justin Alfond of Portland proposed a similar 2009 state initiative. Fortunately, the legislature struck down the open-borders bill.

Current gubernatorial candidate and Attorney General Janet Mills incorrectly opined at the time that the initiative would not violate the Maine Constitution. The Maine Municipal Association oppose the initiative.

The very next year, Portland’s Charter Commission considered the proposal again but voted against it due to concerns the proposition violated state law.

But the immigrant community and Social Justice Warriors took to the streets. The League of Young Voters used out-of-state dark money to collect more than 4,500 signature and get it on the November 2010 ballot. But law and order won the day as 52% of Maine voters rejected the idea that non-citizens should be allowed to cast ballots.

And while the current proposal excludes voting rights for illegal aliens, recent efforts by open-border Leftists prove it may not be long until they would be granted voting rights as well.

“The end game here is not voting rights for just refugees and asylum seekers,” Rep. Lockman said. “First, let us not forget, most asylum seekers are rejected and become illegal aliens. And what we’re seeing nationally right now is a movement to consider all illegal border crossers refugees or asylum seekers. If the open-borders crowd gets there way, and this proposal passes in Portland, an entire wave of illegals will then be voting in Maine elections.”

The vast majority of “asylum seekers” file their applications after getting deportation orders. From there the asylum process can take years. These are illegal immigrants, who, under this proposal, would be allowed to vote.

To Rep. Lockman’s point, if the Left gets their way, soon all illegal aliens would be allowed to vote. Remember, this proposal covers refugees and asylum seekers. In the below video, Democrat-in-Disguise, Sen. Angus King says in a Meet the Press interview, that the illegals coming over now are fleeing for their lives — and should be considered refugees or asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants.

Rep. Lockman says the ploy to forge more votes for Democrats is quite clear.

“This isn’t a far-out game of connect-the-dots,” Rep. Lockman said. “It’s really a straight line. Introduce a proposal to grant voting rights for non-citizens. Watch the immigrant community press for passage. Then redefine illegals as asylum seekers. Just like that, we have illegals voting, and more of them are flooding into the state. And who does that benefit? The party who sacrificed the good of Mainers for the good of non-citizens and illegals. It’s simple math.”

If you would like to contact Portland City Council members and weigh-in before their Aug. 13th vote, you can click here for their contact information.