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House Republicans target DC election laws allowing noncitizens to vote

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House Republicans target DC election laws allowing noncitizens to vote


The House Oversight Committee is set to hold a hearing next week focused on local election laws in Washington, D.C., marking the panel’s latest attempt to scrutinize the city’s affairs as part of its efforts to rein in its limited autonomy.

Republicans announced the hearing on Friday, titling it “American Confidence in Elections: The Path to Election Integrity in the District of Columbia.” The meeting is set to examine election integrity in the district through the lens of measures laid out in the American Confidence in Elections Act, a bill that was introduced in the last Congress that includes a provision to completely overhaul the city’s election laws.

STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT FREEZE GETS END DATE IN DEBT CEILING BILL

“Congress needs to get serious about election integrity and implement a comprehensive plan to restore confidence in America’s electoral process,” Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. “The American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act is landmark legislation set to build voter confidence, equip states, protect Americans’ political speech, and ensure overdue election integrity measures for the District of Columbia.”

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The ACE Act was originally introduced by Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), who is no longer in office, and would implement a number of restrictions over how Washington officials administer their elections. These requirements would include presenting identification at polling places, adding restrictions on the use of ballot drop boxes, prohibiting same-day voter registration, and requiring voters to include a copy of their identification when applying for an absentee ballot.

The bill would also ban noncitizens from voting in local elections, which would overrule a law recently passed by the D.C. Council last year. The House previously voted to overturn that law, but the effort died in the Democratic-led Senate after the chamber declined to bring it up for a vote before the 30-day deadline on which the law would take effect.

Although the D.C. Council overwhelmingly approved that bill, along with several other local election laws, the city government is still left in the hands of Congress due to the district’s lack of statehood.

Under the Home Rule Act, Washington is permitted to operate as an independent city government. The only caveat is that all laws are subject to congressional approval before being enacted, occasionally setting up showdowns between Congress and local lawmakers.

Both the House and Senate passed a bill to overturn the city’s updated criminal code earlier this year, marking the first time Congress voted to overturn a local law passed by the D.C. Council. That bill was later signed by President Joe Biden.

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Republicans also sought to advance a bill that would rescind a slew of local police reforms recently passed in Washington, once again reviving tensions between Congress and local lawmakers. That resolution passed both chambers of Congress but was ultimately vetoed by Biden.

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Now it seems Republicans in Congress are expanding their purview over Washington’s affairs, moving away from crime and homing in on election integrity. The hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday, will feature testimony from four witnesses to discuss the “critical improvements [the ACE] bill makes for the American people,” Comer said.

The witness list includes Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative; Charles Spies, elections lawyer with Dickinson Wright; Monica Evans, executive director of the D.C. Board of Elections; and Wendy Weiser, vice president of democracy for the Brennan Center for Justice.

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Washington

I'm an entrepreneur who has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, and North Dakota. My favorite place has incredible community support for small businesses.

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I'm an entrepreneur who has lived in Washington, Texas, Ireland, and North Dakota. My favorite place has incredible community support for small businesses.


  • Jaymes O’Pheron is an entrepreneur who has lived all over the world.
  • He and his wife moved from Washington state to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.
  • O’Pheron said the Midwest locale is his favorite because of its strong community.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaymes O’Pheron, a 34-year-old entrepreneur who moved from Aberdeen, Washington, to Fargo, North Dakota, in 2021.

The Fargo-Moorhead area, home to about 261,000 people, has seen a significant population uptick in recent years and is expected to reach almost 340,000 people by 2045, a 35% growth rate, according to the Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corp.

My family is a bit odd. I’m the oldest of eight and grew up in a very sheltered, religiously-minded family. I spent most of my childhood in Washington state, outside Vancouver and across the river from Portland. When I was 17, my dad got a job in Texas, so we moved South.

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After that, we deliberately decided as a family to leave America. We picked Ireland because, at the time, it was the last English-speaking nation that did not allow abortion. We wanted to support that.

I absolutely loved Ireland. The weather, the people, the history, the language, the food, the music, the pace of life, the cities, the way it’s designed — it’s very communal.

After four years in Ireland, though, some personal issues led me to move back to Washington in 2012. I met my wife in Aberdeen, and we got married in 2018.

But we knew we weren’t going to stick around Washington forever. We had been experiencing some health issues that we eventually traced back to mold allergies. We realized we were biologically incompatible with mold and how damp and moldy the Northwest is. We couldn’t live there.

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We wanted to find a permanent home, so we started researching potential places to move in 2019.

We tried to be intentional about where we ended up. We narrowed it down to a few places with favorable economic and regulatory aspects and a positive culture.

Then, we visited Fargo, and we knew this was the place. We officially moved in May 2021.


Storefronts in Fargo

O’Pheron said he loves Fargo’s small-town heart and big-city energy.

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Fargo is very friendly to startups

I’m a serial entrepreneur. I can’t stop starting things, both nonprofit and for-profit. Right now, I’m primarily focusing on my nonprofit, which is focused on empowering people to be change-makers in their communities.

I’m also a freelance coach for career performance, communication, networking, and burnout prevention.

The community support here in Fargo is incredible. That was hugely important as I was trying to build up my coaching business. I needed a larger metro center to network, but I also needed a regulatory environment conducive to small business startups.

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Fargo is a great place for small business startups, a huge part of which is due to the community. The people recognize that we need to support one another. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally difficult and risky. Having people around you cheering you on and having your back is incredibly valuable.

That community support is unique from all the other places I’ve lived. You can walk out onto the street and make friends with anyone.

We are definitely putting down roots here. We want our great-grandchildren to live here, so we started looking for a place to buy.

We found a beautiful home. I’m on the HOA board. There are a lot of benefits and assistance in North Dakota for people who are first-time home buyers.

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In Washington, I was living in a studio apartment. We paid about the same rate here in Fargo for our two-bedroom apartment, which was twice the square footage, just outside downtown.

It’s one of the best places in the country as far as the ratio between low cost of living and high-paying jobs goes. The quality of living is high. There are a lot of job opportunities here.


Snow storm in Fargo

Fargo’s winters are notoriously harsh.

Daniel Barry/Getty Images

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Fargo is my favorite place I’ve lived

I just love Fargo. It’s my favorite of all the places I’ve lived because I have all my favorite people here. I have better friends here than I’ve had in my entire life. My favorite part is the community.

When we first drove to Fargo, it felt like we were driving home. There’s something about the scale of the city that is very approachable. It is a downtown area with robust activity, but it also has that small-town feel. It feels very safe and welcoming.

We had new friends from church help us move into an apartment immediately. We had met the pastor when we first got to Fargo, and he put out a call to the parish, and they all showed up to help us.

Because it’s a college town, there’s a lot of youthful energy and idealism. It’s also on the border of Minnesota, a blue state. So, Fargo is a true purple city. There’s a lot of diversity of thought and opinions. People actually have conversations, which is cool.

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The one thing we were anticipating having to adjust to was the weather. We made sure we did all the preparation. We changed our car battery and got the right kinds of tires.

We had a really hard winter our first year there. But it was fun. I shoveled snow from our patio into the bathtub and took an ice bath. The cold weather actually leads to the quality of the community here. People help one another because we’re all in it together.

Fargo is growing quickly. One of the issues we’re dealing with is where to put all the people. We don’t want to create sky-high prices or spread out too far so people can’t commute. The city is trying to strike that balance of small-town heart and big-town body that we love so much.

As a burnout coach, I know that the silver bullet is community. We need to be able to connect with people around us authentically. Loneliness is killing us. So, it’s a luxury to have people here at Fargo whom I can rely on.

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I think others who value community should look at Fargo. It’s an amazing place to be.





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Man shot, killed in Washington Park home

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Man shot, killed in Washington Park home


A man was shot to death in a Washington Park home Tuesday afternoon.

The 18-year-old was in a home in the 5700 block of South Michigan Avenue when someone opened fire about 2:15 p.m., Chicago police said.

He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. His name hasn’t been released.

No arrests were made.

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Man killed in Columbia Heights blaze linked to fireplace debris

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Man killed in Columbia Heights blaze linked to fireplace debris


A man died in a fire in Northwest D.C. early on the morning of Christmas Eve, officials said.

Debris in a fireplace started the blaze in the 1500 block of Ogden St. NW, D.C. Fire and EMS said. It was an accident, officials said.

Firefighters were called to the scene about 1 a.m. When they arrived, they saw flames on the first floor of the building.

The man was rescued and taken to a trauma center, but died, officials said. Firefighters put out the blaze, and investigators are on the scene.

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