{"id":29841,"date":"2026-06-22T08:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=29841"},"modified":"2026-06-22T08:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:53:09","slug":"should-noncitizens-vote-in-la-elections-voters-will-decide-this-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=29841","title":{"rendered":"Should Noncitizens Vote in LA Elections? Voters Will Decide This November"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Los Angeles voters are set to decide whether\u00a0noncitizens\u00a0should 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.\n<\/p>\n

This content is supported by your donations.
Give today.<\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If passed, the city would have the legal authority to create a program allowing certain\u00a0noncitizens\u00a0to vote in Los Angeles municipal and LAUSD elections.\n<\/p>\n

The proposal would not allow noncitizens to vote in federal\u00a0elections. 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.\n<\/p>\n

According to LA City Councilman\u00a0Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez, 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.\n<\/p>\n

Supporters of the measure argue it would give long-term residents a voice in local decisions that affect their families and communities.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have spent many years here, and in many cases, decades, contributing to the city of Los Angeles,\u201d Soto-Mart\u00ednez said during the council debate. \u201cThis is about local representation and local democracy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

He later added, \u201cWe say LA is for everyone, and that means no exceptions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Opponents, however, argue that voting should remain tied to citizenship, and that letting noncitizens vote could harm public confidence in elections.\n<\/p>\n

Councilman John Lee warned that changes to voting eligibility should be approached with caution.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cElection laws are different from ordinary policy decisions,\u201d he said. \u201cThey 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.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Others, including Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, are concerned about the potential devaluing of citizenship.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizenship does mean something. It means you are a fully participating member of society,\u201d he said in an interview with\u00a0the Los Angeles Times. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem unreasonable to say you\u2019ve got to do some time here and demonstrate that you\u2019re somebody that we want as a citizen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Many questions remain about how such a law would be carried out.\n<\/p>\n

Los Angeles\u00a0relies 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.\n<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

California\u00a0law 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.\n<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

What do you think of this proposal? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published at The Daily Signal. Photo Credit: Jay Phagan from Taft, Texas \u2013 Vote Here Sign, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=52568213.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 3 minutes Los Angeles voters are set to decide whether\u00a0noncitizens\u00a0should 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. This content is supported by your donations.Give today. \u00a0 If passed, the city would have the legal authority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1971,590,9924,126,2373,3148],"class_list":["post-29841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-decide","tag-elections","tag-noncitizens","tag-november","tag-vote","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}