Allowing non-citizens the right to vote in local elections has been a debated issue for a very long time in the US and many parts of the world. Initially, elections are reserved for a country’s citizens as they should elect their local leaders and tend to understand better their political landscape rather than non-citizens. Due to this, non-citizens were not allowed to participate in local elections because they did not belong to that country.
But New York decided to make changes to such laws by allowing citizens to vote, and authorities have been trying to understand the logic behind this move. According to the New York Times, “New York City became the largest city in the country to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections after the City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation granting the right to more than 800,000 legal residents” [Source].
Under this legislation, “Noncitizens would be able to begin to register to vote a year from now. They could begin voting in a local election as of Jan. 9, 2023,” as noted by the City Council.
“People who are looking to get elected to office will now have to spend the same amount of time in the communities affected by this legislation as they do in an upper-class neighborhood,” said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez.
Americans opposed the legislation for Citizen Voting, which sent a letter to the New York City Council questioning its decision. “We felt we needed to get involved because this is a growing movement across the country. We are not against immigrants – we believe immigrants have built this country. We feel people should become citizens before they’re allowed to vote,” argued American for Citizen Voting’s president Christopher Arps.
New York joins towns in Vermont and Maryland that allow noncitizens to participate in municipal elections. In San Franciso, noncitizens can vote in school board elections, and “several municipalities in Illinois, Maine, and Massachusetts are also considering allowing noncitizen voting.”
Should Noncitizens Be Participate In Local Elections?
In defending New York City Council’s decision to allow noncitizens to vote, Ms. Santos (32) said, “I think it’s a big step toward showing other localities that we have the right to be represented, and that we have contributed enough to be represented and have a voice. We are New Yorkers like anyone else”. She immigrated to the Bronx from the Dominican Republican at the age of 9 and can live and work in the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals dubbed DACA.
The most popular argument states that immigrants are part of the American community. For instance, Ms. Santos grew up as an American because she came there as a 9-year-old. This means that for 23 years, she has been contributing immensely to the American social structure and economy by living and working in American, so technically, she is American without proper documentation.
Also, does documentation make one a “proper” citizen? Becoming a citizen by acquiring documents does not change one’s contribution to the country they are living in. Christopher Arps of the “American for Citizen Voting” agreed that immigrants helped build America, but he denies them the right to elect leaders. This might seem unfair because immigrants and Americans contribute equally to building the nation, and no one is slacking because they do not have citizenship. From this view, it means noncitizens ought to vote because they also aid Americans in becoming great.
More so, being an immigrant entails a person who has relocated, and in most cases, that person does not wish to go back to their home country. By making a home in a new country, that person is determined to live permanently in the new area, so voting must be a right to inhabitants of this nature. For example, Santos has been living in American for 23 years, and a closer analysis of her character will show that she was willing to adopt the New York culture because that was her home now.
Many noncitizens in the US are involved in economic activities, and they must elect leaders who will enrich their earning values rather than be deprived by certain policies.
Under the American law, it is argued that “Voting is a fundamental right of citizenship, and four amendments to the Constitution specifically recognize and protect this right, guaranteeing it to citizens of all races, genders and economical means [Source], and “The Constitution never extends this right to noncitizens,” which implicates New York for treading on unlawfully grounds. This justification is fair considering the demands of the American constitution, and people must follow it.
However, the constitution does not state that noncitizens are not supposed to vote, and it does not give any negative side to allowing them to vote; it just says that citizens should vote. Lawmakers might as well make an amendment that incorporates every person living in the country to vote.
Other opposing parties believe that some immigrants tend to relocate after amassing wealth or return home for other reasons, so they live temporarily and cannot vote for leaders. Another common view is that immigrants do not know what Americans really want and do not have the country at heart as they lack patriotism, so they cannot cast any votes. All these factors are drowned by the fact that immigrants are contributing immensely to the American economy, and they have lived in that country for generations; thus, American is now their’ home country.
According to CNN, “Allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections is smart policy that is legally sound. It will strengthen communities and give more residents an investment in politics that affect their daily lives. And allowing noncitizens to vote is tooted in both American tradition and ideals” [Source]. It was also noted that there are about 15 million legal non-residents in the US, and they send their children to public schools, pay taxes, contribute to communities, and some are business owners; hence they should get a chance to select their leaders.
By allowing noncitizens to vote, the electoral process will be given a better chance of electing responsive leaders who can represent the need of minority communities and might stamp out racial segregation in terms of service delivery and community development. The New York Times, in an article titled ‘There Is No Good Reason You Should Have to Be a Citizen to Vote,” posited that allowing noncitizens to vote helps in revitalizing American democracy, ensure that all races in America are represented in government, is good civics, restore immigrants’ trust in the government and “the more voters show up to the polls, the more accurately elections reflect people’s desires” [Source].
In light of the mentioned factors, New York and other places that allow noncitizens to vote are in the right direction to instill democracy and fair representation in government.
