Later this year New Zealand will hold parliamentary elections. Sounds fun. I think I’ll fly down for election day and cast my ballot. Care to join me?

Long, you say, you’re an idiot. We can’t vote in that campaign — I’m not a citizen of New Zealand and neither are you. Neither of us have a right to participate in democracy there!

I have no problem with that, and I doubt you do. I may have a favorite party or pet candidates I hope win in New Zealand, but I have no say in the actual process — and I shouldn’t. Only citizens of New Zealand get to choose their nation’s representatives.

I bring this up because it seems that anytime the possibility of non-citizens voting in American elections is mentioned, there seems to be two main reactions. Some folks yawn and say “Eh, whatchya gonna do?” Others glare accusingly and exclaim “How dare you even bring up such an unmentionable topic!!!” Yet it seems to me that this is a conversation worth having.

There are election laws. I’ve never heard anyone claim there should be none. Yet as obvious as is the need for defined policies on who gets to vote and who cannot, when such laws are only haphazardly enforced it invites violations. Can you imagine what chaos there would be if we enforced traffic laws, or banking regulations, or truancy rules like we enforce voting laws?

The law is clear on non-citizens voting. Article II Section 1 of Virginia’s constitution unequivocally states that “each voter shall be a citizen of the United States.” Meanwhile Section 18 § 1015 of the United States Code makes it illegal to make a “false statement or claim [to be] a citizen of the United States in order to register to vote or to vote.” In other words, not only is it a federal crime for noncitizens to vote, it’s a federal crime for them even to register.

Earlier this month, a group called the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) released a study on non-citizen voter registration in Virginia. This nonprofit, “dedicated to election integrity,” found that since 2011 “5,556 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls for citizenship problems in 120 of Virginia’s 133 voting jurisdictions…in 102 of these jurisdictions, 1,852 individuals cast 7,474 ballots before election officials cancelled their registrations.”

In other words, nearly 7,500 votes have been cast in recent years in Virginia in violation of federal election law and the constitution of the Commonwealth. Did these votes make a final difference in any state or local election? Probably not (though I note how close the last state attorney general race was). I suspect that these illegal votes were split between the two major parties. But no matter. If you voted for Candidate A in an election and a non-citizen behind you voted for Candidate B, it probably didn’t decide the outcome. But it did cancel out your constitutionally guaranteed vote with an invalid one.

Bear in mind that these numbers were based only on what PILF discovered of non-citizen voters who had been removed from local voter rolls. It’s certainly conceivable that the number of undetected non-citizen registrants is much higher. But even if that number is still pretty small in the grand scheme of things, at what point should be grow concerned? Just what number of unlawful votes should be allowed?

(A non-citizen can, of course, go through the arduous process of citizenship and then register. He then has the exact same right to vote as you do.)

Now, maybe some will argue that citizenship is an outmoded concept and any resident with a stake in politics should be allowed to vote. Great. Make the argument. Win support, and get the law changed. But until that day, should we not enforce the laws on the books? Every noncitizen registration and every resulting vote case is, after all, a federal crime.

You might have noticed a lot of people upset at the possibility that another nation — Russia — may have tried to influence our election last year. It’s a serious enough charge to warrant investigations galore. Yet when evidence surfaces that non-citizens from other nations have tried to influence our elections one illicit vote at a time, we seem content to ignore the issue.

Virginia has an important gubernatorial election this fall. We owe it to ourselves to be sure, to the best extent we can, that every vote counts and none are negated by a non-citizen casting a ballot.

Long is the education director for the National D-Day Memorial.