New York Could Be America's First City To Let Non-Citizens Vote

[FarCenter]

New York City could soon become the first major city in the country to give non-citizens the right to vote.

The proposal, which would allow certain non-citizens to vote in local elections, appears to have a veto-proof majority in the New York City Council — enough to overcome opposition by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

As hearings on the proposal get underway Thursday, supporters are optimistic it will become law by the end of the year and believe it will have an impact beyond the five boroughs.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-city-non-citizens-vote-2013-5

[hrmjustin]

1. I am not sure I how I feel about this.

If they do this it should only be for people working toward citizenship. I would vote no on this.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. I'm married to

A Resident Alien.

He knows and follows the rules - and he is well aware of the fact that he is not an American.

I think - MOST Resident Aliens (aka Green Card Holders) are naturally working towards citizenship. They are ready, willing and able to follow the rules.

I think - perhaps - the Resident Aliens are aok with the way the system is today. I.E. After I take the oath I can register to vote, then vote.


I also wonder -does NYC now have to have entirely separate elections for their city offices and initiatives? How would we prevent a NYC resident from voting in a state wide or National election if there were not.


And no one can call me a 'Nativist'. I don't get the path to citizenship thing because I'm trying to get my EU Passport, health care, etc. etc. I'm up here trying to bolt from this place!

[hrmjustin]

5. NY voting rolls are a mess and this would make it worse.

NY has ballot questions even in the odd numbered years. You would have to have a separate voting role for non-citizen voters. NY is horrible at running elections. This will make it worse.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. NYC area?

I never had issues when I lived in Western NY - but I've never lived down on the Islands. Moved to NJ in early 2006.

[hrmjustin]

12. Yes the Metro area.

Lines can go for an hour or two in certain areas.

[Politicalboi]

2. This is a disaster waiting to happen

Not that our voting isn't a disaster already, but this will add to it. Why don't we fix our voting system before adding more shit to clog the wheel.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. +100000

[SpartanDem]

6. Why? Voting is the one perks of being a citizen

Moving to another country I wouldn't expect to have the right to vote without gaining citizenship.

[Luminous Animal]

19. If you move to any of these 63 places, you would have voting rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_foreigners_to_vote#Individual_national_cases

And up to turn of the 20th century, (and with the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments) most of the U.S. offered limited voting rights to non-citizens. In many municipalities, non-citizens were allowed to hold public office.

Currently, Chicago allows non-citizens to vote.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. It makes sense to let residents vote in local elections.

[brooklynite]

8. Here's a minimum requirement:

Amend the Bill to require that the "bi-partisan", patronage-laden Board of Elections be replaced with an independent, professional Elections office. Otherwise this will be a disaster.

[hrmjustin]

9. That requires Albany Action and that will not happen.

[DURHAM D]

10. I have no problem with this.

In some places women were allowed to vote in local elections before women had the right to vote in national elections.

[hughee99]

15. In my hometown, women started in 1756.

Okay, that's not really accurate. A (one) woman was allowed to vote in local elections as early as 1756, not all women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Taft

[pampango]

13. Most European countries allow non-citizens to vote in local elections and it was common in the US.

Most Americans are unaware that non-citizen voting was widespread in the United States for the first 150 years of its history. From 1776 until 1926, 22 states and federal territories allowed non-citizens to vote in local, state, and even federal elections but gradually repealed this right. The US Constitution gives states and municipalities the right to decide who is eligible to vote.

Non-citizen voting rights, however, were largely repealed due to the anti-immigrant sentiment of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Precedents for this include New York City, where non-citizens voted in school board elections from 1970 to 2003 (when school boards were dissolved as part of a recentralization effort), and Chicago, where non-citizens received school board voting rights in 1988.

http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?ID=265

[hrmjustin]

14. I did not know this, thank you for the info.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I was going to point this out

[Luminous Animal]

16. Most of the U.S. allowed non-citizen voting until the early 20th century.

Jump to: navigation, search

Over 40 states or territories, including colonies before the Declaration of Independence, have at some time admitted aliens voting rights for some or all elections.[1][2][3][4] In 1874, the Supreme Court in Minor v. Happersett noted that "citizenship has not in all cases been made a condition precedent to the enjoyment of the right of suffrage. Thus, in Missouri, persons of foreign birth, who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, may under certain circumstances vote."[5]

By 1900, nearly one-half of the states and territories had some experience with voting by aliens, and for some the experience lasted more than half a century.[6] At the turn of the twentieth century, anti-immigration feeling ran very high, and Alabama stopped allowing aliens to vote by way of a constitutional change in 1901; Colorado followed suit in 1902, Wisconsin in 1908, and Oregon in 1914.[7] Just as the nationalism unleashed by the War of 1812 helped to reverse the alien suffrage policies inherited from the late eighteenth century, World War I caused a sweeping retreat from the progressive alien suffrage policies of the late nineteenth century.[8] In 1918, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota all changed their constitutions to purge alien suffrage, and Texas ended the practice of non-citizen voting in primary elections by statute.[9] Indiana and Texas joined the trend in 1921, followed by Mississippi in 1924 and, finally, Arkansas in 1926.[10] In 1931, political scientist Leon Aylsworth noted: "For the first time in over a hundred years, a national election was held in 1928 in which no alien in any state had the right to cast a vote for a candidate for any office -- national, state, or local."[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_foreigners_to_vote_in_the_United_States