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Los Angeles voters are set to decide whether noncitizens should have a say in city elections after the City Council on Wednesday voted 10-5 to place a controversial voting measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.
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If passed, the city would have the legal authority to create a program allowing certain noncitizens to vote in Los Angeles municipal and LAUSD elections.
The proposal would not allow noncitizens to vote in federal elections. However, many questions remain about how the system would work, and how officials would ensure participants receive ballots only for elections in which they are permitted to vote.
According to LA City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, who introduced the proposal in April, eligibility would be limited to residents with some form of legal status. This would include Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, green card holders, and individuals with temporary protected status.
Supporters of the measure argue it would give long-term residents a voice in local decisions that affect their families and communities.
“People have spent many years here, and in many cases, decades, contributing to the city of Los Angeles,” Soto-Martínez said during the council debate. “This is about local representation and local democracy.”
He later added, “We say LA is for everyone, and that means no exceptions.”
Opponents, however, argue that voting should remain tied to citizenship, and that letting noncitizens vote could harm public confidence in elections.
Councilman John Lee warned that changes to voting eligibility should be approached with caution.
“Election laws are different from ordinary policy decisions,” he said. “They establish rules under which elected officials are chosen and held accountable, and because of that, changes to voting eligibility should be approached with the utmost public trust and legitimacy.”
Others, including Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, are concerned about the potential devaluing of citizenship.
“Citizenship does mean something. It means you are a fully participating member of society,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “It doesn’t seem unreasonable to say you’ve got to do some time here and demonstrate that you’re somebody that we want as a citizen.”
Many questions remain about how such a law would be carried out.
Los Angeles relies on Los Angeles County to administer elections, and city officials have yet to explain how noncitizen voters would be registered, what documentation would be required to prove eligibility, or how separate voter rolls would be maintained.
Questions also have been raised about how election officials would ensure participants receive ballots for races they are legally allowed to vote in, while preventing them from receiving ballots for state and federal contests.
California law currently requires citizenship in order to register to vote. But multiple cities in the Golden State have implemented similar policies, including San Francisco in 2016, and Oakland in 2022, both of which allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections.
If approved on Nov. 3, city officials would begin the process of determining who qualifies, how the program would be administered, and whether it can withstand potential legal challenges.
What do you think of this proposal? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments below.
This article was originally published at The Daily Signal. Photo Credit: Jay Phagan from Taft, Texas – Vote Here Sign, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52568213.
