commentary The president is pushing states to create citizenship lists to prevent non-citizens from voting Published May 26, 2026 10:03AM (EDT) People line up for early voting at a polling station at the Black Mountain Public Library in Black Mountain, North Carolina on October 21, 2024. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) Considering the current hysteria over alleged non-citizen voting , it may come as a surprise to many Americans that for a good part of our history, many states not only allowed it, they actively encouraged it. According to “ The Passing of Alien Suffrage ” by Leon E. Aylsworth, at least 22 states allowed non-citizens to vote during the 19th-century. Some states were trying to fulfill certain population numbers to meet statehood requirements, while others in the post-Civil War period needed to replace the newly freed enslaved population and used the vote as an enticement for immigrant labor.…