The Possibility of Noncitizen Voting Rights

Some localities are granting limited voting rights to noncitizens, especially on issues directly affecting them.

Marcela Rosas has lived in Santa Ana, California, for more than a decade. Her three children have grown up in the local schools, and Rosas is a long-time volunteer at school programs and community organizations, including the local Mexican cultural center. She follows local politics and worries about how the Santa Ana City Council鈥檚 decisions will affect her family. But Rosas has never voted for the city council members who make those decisions. As a noncitizen resident of Santa Ana, she has never had the right to cast a ballot.

A November 2024 for Rosas and thousands of other Santa Ana residents. If voters pass , noncitizen residents will have the right to vote in Santa Ana鈥檚 local elections beginning in 2028. It would be the third jurisdiction in California to offer limited voting rights to noncitizens. Meanwhile, nationwide, the number of jurisdictions that have granted some is nearing two dozen, with just last September by a vote of the local Board of Aldermen.

The measure to expand voting rights in Santa Ana is the only one like it on any ballot nationwide in November 2024. It comes as voters are being asked to decide on constitutional amendments that will to preemptively block any noncitizen voting measures from moving forward. Those amendments have been spurred by and former president about immigrants violating voting laws.

Pro-democracy and voter education groups, such as the and , have condemned the proposed amendments for giving credence to conspiracy theories about voter fraud and Democrat-led ballot harvesting.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know what the outcome of the presidential election is going to be in November, but we do know that immigrants have lost regardless because of the rhetoric that has been spewed by both candidates,鈥� says Carlos Perea, executive director at the , which has helped drive the movement for Measure DD in Santa Ana. Not unlike Republican nominee Trump, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has also adopted a callous tone toward migrants during her campaign, including bragging about backing a bipartisan anti-immigrant bill that her campaign ads call 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淚n an election year where immigrants have become the preferred boogeyman for both presidential candidates, we want to send a message that we are not going to stand for our communities being demonized,鈥� says Perea. 鈥淲e are defining our lives at the local level, and we want self-determination through political representation.鈥� Perea, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient who has lived in Santa Ana since he was 14, is also among the residents who could vote in local elections for the first time if Measure DD passes.

If the call to expand limited voting rights to noncitizens sounds far fetched or new, the suburban town of Takoma Park, Maryland, has news for you. 鈥淲e just celebrated 30 years of noncitizen voting,鈥� says Jessie Carpenter, Takoma Park鈥檚 city clerk responsible for election administration. Voters in Takoma Park voted to allow noncitizen residents to cast ballots in local elections in 1992. The change was implemented the following year and has worked smoothly for decades.

The movement is younger in California, where San Francisco became the first city in the state to grant noncitizens some voting rights in 2016 with a ballot measure called . The change went into effect two years later. San Francisco鈥檚 measure, which is more limited in scope than Takoma Park鈥檚, enables noncitizen parents of school children to vote only in school board races. In contrast, all noncitizen residents of Takoma Park can vote in all municipal elections. similar to San Francisco鈥檚 in 2022.

Annette Wong, managing director of programs at in San Francisco, says the initiative to enfranchise parents in school board elections was important to the city鈥檚 Chinese American community and other immigrant communities because they wanted to be more involved in the politics of their children鈥檚 education. 鈥淚t came from this desire by the parents that we had been organizing with for them to have a bigger say and a voice in their child鈥檚 education,鈥� she says.

A similar sentiment has driven the movement in Santa Ana, where parents like Rosas want to vote in local contests based on what they believe is best for their children. The campaign for Measure DD also highlights how much the noncitizen community contributes to the local economy. Each year, noncitizen residents of Santa Ana pay an estimated , according to analysis from the Harbor Institute. That number is based on U.S. Census Bureau data and information from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. 鈥淩egardless of immigration status, regardless of where we come from, today we live in this city 鈥� our children go to school, we contribute our labor, and we pay taxes,鈥� Rosas says. 鈥淪imply, we [should] be allowed to participate just like any other person in this city participates in local decisions.鈥�

The expansion of limited voting rights to noncitizen residents in parts of California has faced challenges from opponents who argue it burdens cities with additional costs and complexities in election administration and could contradict the state鈥檚 constitution. After Proposition N passed and was implemented in San Francisco, a conservative activist named , who does not live in San Francisco, brought a lawsuit in a local court, alleging the program was unconstitutional. A San Francisco Superior Court judge initially sided with Lacy in July 2022. However, the city appealed that decision to the California Court of Appeal, which reversed the lower court decision and upheld the legality of San Francisco鈥檚 noncitizen voting program in what city attorney David Chiu called 鈥�.鈥�

that California鈥檚 constitution, which states that 鈥渁 United States citizen 18 years of age and resident in this State may vote,鈥� only established a 鈥渇loor,鈥� meaning a lower limit on enfranchisement, rather than a 鈥渃eiling鈥� or upper limit. Therefore, it does not preclude expanding voting rights to groups beyond what is named in the state鈥檚 constitution. (The ruling also paved the way for the enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year olds in some California cities.)

Julia Gomez, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, says the California Court of Appeal鈥檚 holding 鈥渉ighlights that it鈥檚 state specific,鈥� and whether other jurisdictions can pursue similar noncitizen resident voting programs will depend on their state constitution.

In New York City, where the city council passed legislation allowing noncitizen residents to vote in local elections in 2021, Republican officials the rule at the appellate court level. Unlike in the California case, a judge in New York ruled that the state鈥檚 constitution establishes a ceiling beyond which voting rights cannot be expanded. In March 2024, the city council filed a in support of the law.

In spite of repeated conservative claims that widespread and illegal noncitizen voting threatens U.S. democracy, researchers conclude that there is essentially . Carpenter, who administers elections in Takoma Park, says the noncitizen voter program in her jurisdiction does not threaten the integrity of state or federal elections, in which noncitizens remain barred from voting. The city clerk鈥檚 office maintains its own supplemental list of noncitizen voters and does not feed any information into county or state systems, meaning there is no chance that noncitizen voters from Takoma Park could accidentally end up on the Maryland voter rolls.

Other jurisdictions that pursue limited enfranchisement for noncitizen voters have put similar safeguards in place. For example, in San Francisco, the ballots for noncitizen parents are a different color and only feature the applicable school board races, so no one could accidentally vote in another contest.

鈥淭he stories that noncitizens are voting [in federal elections] or we鈥檙e registering people so they can vote for Democrats鈥攏one of that is the case,鈥� says Carpenter. 鈥淲hat it does mean is that people could feel like they鈥檙e really a part of the community and that they have a say in how the local government works.鈥�

Plus, noncitizen voters themselves have no desire to commit voter fraud and risk disrupting their immigration status. 鈥淔olks in the noncitizen community, the immigrant community, they鈥檙e not trying to jeopardize things for themselves,鈥� says Wong, whose organization also anchors the . That group provides outreach and education services to newly enfranchised immigrant parents to ensure they are familiar with the bounds of their hard-won rights and feel empowered to get involved in their children鈥檚 education, whether or not they decide to cast a vote in school board elections. Gomez says that if Measure DD passes in Santa Ana, the coalition there will launch a similar effort before the new rule goes into effect.

As Republican-led legislation to preclude the enfranchisement of noncitizens gains steam amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment nationwide, proponents of noncitizen voting programs remain focused on the heart of the issue: 鈥淲e see this movement as an acknowledgment that we are all a part of this shared society,鈥� says Wong. 鈥淣o matter where you are in the society, you have a stake and you should have a voice.鈥�