The city’s annual education budget is funded with tax dollars through the State Education Fund, which is created by the Board of School Commissioners. By allowing noncitizens to vote to elect School commissioners, they now “have the power to affect financial decisions that have implications for all Vermont taxpayers,” RITE alleged.

“Permitting noncitizens to vote on these issues violates the Vermont Constitution,” the lawsuit states.

In November 2018, a similar provision was approved by the city of Montpelier allowing noncitizens to vote in certain local elections. Two years later in November of 2020, the city of Winooski approved a measure allowing noncitizens to vote in all city elections.

The Vermont General Assembly voted to approve the Montpelier and Winooski amendments in May of 2021 but were vetoed by Republican Gov. Phil Scott later that June. The General Assembly overrode those vetoes later that month, approving the amendments.

“The non-citizen voting movement achieves the left’s goal of legalizing foreign interference in American elections,” Lyons said in the press release. “It threatens the rule of law and must be stopped before it further infects Vermont and other states in this country.

The offices of Scott and Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.