I hate to think that Pat Buchanan and I might agree on anything, but allowing non-citizens the right to vote, even on local issues, seems wrong. I'm guessing many of you agree, based on the responses to a poll that asked our e-mail newsletter subscribers their opinions on that issue. A couple of hours after the newsletter launched, a fireball of opinions burned through our mailbox, the overwhelming majority of which lambasted the idea of non-citizen voting rights.

Election seasons tend to bring out voting issues — this year's crop includes electronic voting machine problems and more suspicious voter list purging in Florida — but where did this one come from? The epicenter of immigrant voting rights is in San Francisco where its residents will be deciding on whether to let non-citizens vote in local school elections, which by the way, would make it the first California community to do so.

The measure, which will be on the November ballot, would give voting rights to the documented and undocumented parents or guardians of the city's schoolchildren. Until now, New York and Chicago were the only major cities with a similar voting rights plan for non-citizens, but New York recently restructured its school system, ending the practice.

A state court struck down a similar attempt by San Francisco in 1996 citing the California constitution's definition of who is allowed to vote. Unwilling to join their fellow Californians in a showdown with the state, local officials in San Bernardino ended an attempt to give their non-citizens the right to vote in local school elections last month saying that such a move is outside its jurisdiction.

Proponents of non-citizen voting rights argue that if aliens pay taxes, then they should be allowed to vote. What does money have to do with being qualified to vote? Politicians cannot legally buy votes, so why should we consider it proper to allow someone to buy their way into the system? Proponents also note that our country has an inconsistent voting record itself, denying suffrage for blacks and women and allowing non-citizens in 22 states to vote — a practice ended by the late 1920s. Because it was wrong to restrict the vote to white men does not mean that restricting the vote to citizens in 1928 was wrong, too.

However, despite my first reaction, we should consider allowing non-citizens the right to vote in local elections, if for no other reason, because it is the American thing to do. Like other periods in our history when fear of our neighbors played a significant role in our lives, we must avoid the tendency to simplify the complicated or avoid issues because they are contrary to tradition. If I remember correctly, our country was founded by people who favored free thought over established thinking.

While it would be easier to bury the issue of non-citizens' voting rights, I still believe that immigrants, like all my grandparents, come here because America is a place that welcomes an open and honest hearing on any idea, especially those that are controversial.

Sorry Pat, as it turns out, we may not be agreeing on this issue, either.