New York City Council Passes Bill to Let Non-Citizen Residents Vote in Elections for City Office

On December 9, the New York city council passed a bill to let non-citizen adult residents vote in elections for city office. Although fourteen other cities in the U.S. allow non-citizens to vote in at least some local elections, New York city is the first place to allow adult resident non-citizens to vote in a partisan election.

Although Mayor Bill de Blasio has not yet signed the bill, he has said that he will not veto it. Some city council members who oppose the idea plan to sue, arguing that the measure violates the New York state constitution, which is silent on that issue. Here is a Ballotpedia article about cities in the U.S. that allow non-citizens to vote. The article is very comprehensive and has information about the state constitutions of all states that relate to the issue.

Assuming the measure goes into effect, it will be interesting to see the voter enrollement statistics for non-citizens. Obviously there will need to be a separate voter registration list for non-citizens, because they still won’t be able to vote in federal and state elections, so the two lists must be kept separate.


Comments

New York City Council Passes Bill to Let Non-Citizen Residents Vote in Elections for City Office — 27 Comments

  1. NY Const 1 Jan 2018

    Art. II, Section 1. Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all
    officers elected by the people and upon all questions submitted to the vote of
    the people provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall
    have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty
    days next preceding an election.

    (Amended by Constitutional Convention of
    1938 and approved by vote of the people November 8, 1938; further
    amended by vote of the people November 2, 1943; November 6, 1945;
    November 6, 1961; November 8, 1966; November 7, 1995.)
    —–
    Standard stuff – specified qualifs = NO other qualif

    How soon to new case ???

  2. “Art. II, Section 1. Every citizen shall be entitled to vote at every election for all
    officers elected by the people and upon all questions submitted to the vote of
    the people provided that such citizen is eighteen years of age or over and shall
    have been a resident of this state, and of the county, city, or village for thirty
    days next preceding an election. ”

    This doesn’t say whether any other people may be allowed to vote, only that all people who meet the listed criteria are entitled to vote.

  3. It’s de Blasio, not Blasio.

    This is a horrible bill. Is NYC where Biden and co are flying all of these illegals?

  4. If I’m not mistaken, NYC has city initiatives and referendums. I think this should go to a vote of the people, before the definition of voter may get changed. You can say that the city council was elected by the people, and could be replaced if they thwart the people’s will. But when they try to change who all can vote on their reelection, the body of people which was eligible to elect them to begin with should have a say in that.

  5. Legal Definition of expressio unius est exclusio alterius
    : a principle in statutory construction: when one or more things of a class are expressly mentioned others of the same class are excluded

    History and Etymology for expressio unius est exclusio alterius
    New Latin, the explicit mention of one (thing) is the exclusion of another

    students can google eueea in court opins

  6. Not necessarily. It’s perfectly logical to say that some people have a right to vote that the city council can’t take away, but that they can extend it to additional people, or not, at their discretion. To take one example, in some states people between the age of , say, 6 and 16 have a right to a public education. But that doesn’t mean that this right can’t statutorily be extended to people a couple of years younger and older.

  7. This is really stupid. These people should NOT be voting, they should be getting deported immediately!

  8. The illegals will “mistakenly” be allowed to vote in federal elections and will end up stealing elections.

  9. Deported? They could just sneak back in. I say toss them into the harbor from the top of the Statue of Liberty and fit them with cement shoes just in case. Put the whole thing on tv and internet video to keep more from coming over! Now THAT is what I call libertarian!

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  11. “Illegals” are not who this law covers. It deals with legal resident aliens who got a green card but not citizenship. Libertarians are right wing far right nut jobs, basically pretty much Nazis.

  12. Everyone who can’t trace all branches of their family to Northwest Europe should be deported or drowned in the ocean.

  13. We don’t want to be humane. We want to be as brutal as possible to really send a message, to provide the maximum possible deterrent and keep more from trying to sneak in by scaring the tar out of them.

  14. Legal resident aliens —

    due to various Treaties since 1776/1789 —
    areas that became parts of the USA-

    1783 USA-Brit Peace Treaty olde NW/SW territories
    1803 USA-France LA Purchase
    1819 USA-Spain FL purchase
    1849 USA-Mex Peace Treaty
    etc.

    Resident aliens generally given option to become USA naturalized citizens or remain legal alien residents.

  15. It’s like some people just don’t understand the whole point of punishment.

    1. It’s fun, in a sadistic way. The more brutal, the more fun.

    2. It’s a deterrent. The more brutal, the bigger the deterrent.

  16. Meh. Immigrants legally allowed to vote in US local elections is nothing new. Really, all the complaining comes from hillbillies and rednecks and we all know they are hardly capable people wishing for the best of America.

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