Thread: Jury duty notice....

My LEGAL immigrant wife received a jury summons yesterday in the mail. OK, she is not a citizen so she will be ineligible. However, if local government would communnicate with the ICE they would know that she is ineligible and she wouuld never get the summons in the first place.

I believe they got her name from the fact that she obtained a driver's license.

You know you hear all this talk after 9-11 of knowing who is here and knowing who is legal and who is not. etc. etc.

I support the real ID act. In Latin America most countries require you have an ID card called a cedula. It works there and they should do it here.

Maybe my wife should be able to serve on a jury I mean how many illegals will be in that court on a traffic charge or something?

Originally Posted by alipacdude

My LEGAL immigrant wife received a jury summons yesterday in the mail. OK, she is not a citizen so she will be ineligible. However, if local government would communnicate with the ICE they would know that she is ineligible and she wouuld never get the summons in the first place.

I believe they got her name from the fact that she obtained a driver's license.

You know you hear all this talk after 9-11 of knowing who is here and knowing who is legal and who is not. etc. etc.

I support the real ID act. In Latin America most countries require you have an ID card called a cedula. It works there and they should do it here.

Maybe my wife should be able to serve on a jury I mean how many illegals will be in that court on a traffic charge or something?

Jury Pools usually come from registered voters.. Did she register when she obtained a DL? If she is not eligible to vote she should not.

In my state, the jury summons notice form includes a line (for the return postcard part) to note if a person is a 'Citizen of another country' or something very similar. So, yes, most states issue jury summons from their database of locally registered voters.

Question: How can an IA be a registered voter, vote in Federal elections, and still receive a jury summons...(?; yes, requisite sarcasm intended...)

I had not thought of that? She does not vote so I will make a few phone calls to see how they received her name?

She obtained a drivers license and she is included on our taxes.

I am curious......

Originally Posted by alipacdude

I had not thought of that? She does not vote so I will make a few phone calls to see how they received her name?

She obtained a drivers license and she is included on our taxes.

I am curious......

She may have inadvertently checked the motor voter box.. or a person at the DMV might have made the error..

Do check that.. because it is agaisnt the law to register if not eligible to vote.

I am not a citizen and also received a jury summons last year. I have never registered to vote. I do have a driving licence. I do own a home and pay all appropriate taxes including social security and medicare taxes. It would seem there are numerous locations from which my name and address could have been obtained any of which do not care about my immigration status (and never care to ask) as long as my bills are paid in full and on time.

At least the courts can weed us out with their little questionnaire. However, I do believe that as I enjoy the privilege of living in the USA that fulfilling jury service is an important public service that I would be happy to do to the best of my ability if asked.

alipacdude, et al:

I posed the question because I have some inkling about what the response is likely to be.

Over simplified, but typical is something like this (noting that state's policies regarding ID requirements to register/vote varies greatly between and among states...)

Basically, the 'right to vote' is something that most Sec's of State restrict by the provision of proof of residency only (eg. one need only provide some proof that you actually live in the jurisdiction you will vote in - and, being a suitable age - is 'enough' to legally vote in most places.).
More recently, some states have tried to enforce the citizenship issue by the requirement of photo ID, birth certificate, etc. - but I believe these states are still in the minority overall. Bottom line: non-citizens can still vote in local elections legally - however unfortunate and questionable this may be. At the same time, voting in a Federal election is strictly prohibited by Federal law. Here's the real problem of the above: most states don't separate out what is the 'Federal' part of an election vs. what is truly 'local'. (Disclaimer: I'm speaking with the bias or experience of my own state, and we have some very specific things we do in election - not the least of which is universal mail-based voting)

As evidence of the above, my state publishes the voter pamphlet in a variety of foreign languages. If someone is a legal resident or citizen, you already are functional in English (well, about 99% of the time; the only exceptions be asylees and refugees) - if you are here on a temporary work visa or are a student you're not eligible to vote flat-out anyway.

Of course, the entire situation is really screwed up - that's the only way I can see it. My view is: if you're not a citizen, you shouldn't be voting - period. Obvious disclaimer and footnote to the above: yes, you can guess my feelings on all the above. Especially given my signature line below by TR...

Pistov wrote:

Do check that.. because it is agaisnt the law to register if not eligible to vote.

Yes, almost certainly that is correct. Most states have laws prohibiting false or unqualified registrations. Problem is... not all states enforce that strongly, or much at all... (although all surely SAY they do).

Case in point: the 1996 or was it 1998 election of Loretta Sanchez (D-CA; Orange County area) to the US House had thousands of votes cast by persons who's legal basis to do so was highly questioned. (the research behind the investigation, is of course, very complex and nuanced because you would be trying to count people that inherently don't want to be counted, not to mention, that you'd have to do an enormous amount of manual verification of paper trail(s) - and THAT - would require the cooperation of local and state elections people - so even THAT - is an inherently political process itself...). I think Judicial Watch and other conservative watchdog groups were the main proponents for investigating that. I had done a fair amount of looking into it in the late summer/fall of 2006 leading up to the midterm Congressional elections here at ALIPAC. Search for 'Lock the Vote' and see what comes back. We've discussed the issue of voting/ID requirements at length here before...

Originally Posted by Pistov

Jury Pools usually come from registered voters.. Did she register when she obtained a DL? If she is not eligible to vote she should not.

Here in Harris County (Houston) jurors are also selected from those who have a Texas driver's license. On the back of the summons, not being a citizen is one of the ways listed that you can not serve. My guess is that someone who is not a citizen or even a convicted felon could get on a jury without anyone checking.

After the benefit of my strong morning coffee... clarity evolves...

What I was trying to say in the above is that all the rules are designed to 'tell' people that aren't eligible to vote, not to do so. But, if anyone wants to, there is little practical impediment in doing so. Or, stated another way, 'hey, if someone lied or cheated to get here, and probably lied or cheated to get a job, why would lying or cheating another time to vote be a big deal???'
^That's what I was trying to say...