“The GOP Is Panicking Over Noncitizen Voting. It’s Imaginary,” read a headline in New York Magazine this past February. The article maligned Republican efforts to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. New York Magazine accused Republicans of focusing on a “phantom menace of noncitizen voting.”

Fast forward seven months and New York Magazine has gone from claiming that noncitizen voting is “imaginary” to asking “Why is noncitizen voting so terrifying?”

NY Magazine’s Zak Cheney-Rice focuses his latest piece on New York City’s Local Law 11, which would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections before it was shot down by the state’s highest court. The legislation would have made roughly 800,000 noncitizens eligible for voting for offices like council or mayor. Those eligible would have included lawful permanent residents and others authorized to work in the United States who had been living in the city for at least 30 days.

This law was in no way an “imaginary” change. In fact, it was a real point of contention that had been around long before New York Magazine’s February article dismissing noncitizen voting as “imaginary.” Had the law gone into effect, noncitizens could have constituted a significant part of the Big Apple electorate and could have exceeded margins of victory in tight local races — not an “imaginary” problem by any means.

NY Mag Goes From 'Noncitizen Voting Is Imaginary' To 'Here's Why It's Good'