New York Park District Votes to Let Non-Property Owners Vote

On June 18, the Park District Commission in Mattituck, New York, voted to let all registered voters in the village vote on the District’s budget. See this story. Previously, only property owners could vote on the budget. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled 6-3 that, generally, governments that hold elections must let all registered voters vote. The case was Kramer v Union Free School District, and it struck down a New York law that only property owners, and parents of students attending public schools, and people who lease their residence, are permitted to vote in School Board elections. The Kramer case is a leading precedent for the idea that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment confers a general right to vote, at instances in which the government is already permitting an election of some type.

If the Mattituck Board had not acted, it faced a lawsuit by a disenfranchised voter.


Comments

New York Park District Votes to Let Non-Property Owners Vote — No Comments

  1. What about those who own property but do not live in a district? They pay taxes but do not get the right to vote. Taxation without representation.

  2. Kramer was one more MORON opinion by the party hack Supremes.

    The Congress in 1866 knew all about elector qualifications in LOCAL elections in the States when it changed the original proposed 14th Amdt, Sec. 2 to have a LIMITED number of major offices in the final language.

    Proper remedy – a constitutional amendment having a uniform *positive* definition of Elector in ALL of the U.S.A. — and remove all the *negative* elector definition stuff in the Constitution.

    —-
    #1 Same problem with ALL taxes/fees if one does not reside in the area having the taxes/fees — inter-city, inter-county, inter-State, inter-Nation.

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