Should non-citizens have voting rights?

In July, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to put a measure on the November ballot that would allow non-citizen parents and guardians of children in public schools the right to vote in school board elections. In New York, a coalition of more than 30 immigrant and civil rights groups is lobbying the City Council to extend non-citizen voting rights for municipal elections. If the groups prevail, 1 million voters will be added to the city’s dockets.

Like New York and San Francisco, many city and county governments across the country are debating non-citizen voting rights in local and school board elections. Proponents of non-citizen suffrage argue that immigrants should have a right to vote because they pay taxes, contribute to the economic and social infrastructures of their communities and may serve in the U.S. military. Opponents say the right to vote is an important privilege that should only be extended to citizens, that non-citizens are more loyal to their native countries and cannot make informed decisions when voting in America.

Although allowing non-citizens to vote in local and school board elections is relatively new to this generation, it is not a new concept. Until 1926, when World-War-I-induced xenophobia ended the practice, voting rights in 22 states were not tied to citizenship.

An overwhelming majority of readers responded negatively in a recent American City & County poll on non-citizen voting rights. For example, Chris Hassall, vice president of Orlando, Fla.-based PSA Constructors is a non-citizen of English origin who has the right to vote in neither the United Kingdom nor the United States. “I personally do not believe that non-citizens should have a right to vote — but I also do not believe that non-citizens should be penalized,” Hassall says. By “penalized,” Hassall is referring to death taxes, which make a $60,000 net worth allowance for non-citizens before taxation but allow $600,000 net worth for citizens.

Proponents of non-citizen voting rights recall the Revolutionary War slogan, “no taxation without representation” to support their argument. They point out that the U.S. has been permitting non-citizens to serve and be drafted into the military since the country’s founding.

Jay Gsell, county manager of Genesee County, N.Y., believes that voting is an inalienable right for citizens and non-citizens alike. “We have a number of migrant workers who toil in the crop fields here where 60 percent of our land mass is agriculturally zoned,” Gsell says. He notes immigrants are also in need of housing and health care but says programs that could help might also scare immigrants away

Several readers echoed Gsell’s point: illegal immigrants live under fear of deportation and may be reticent about participating in elections. Gary Dovey, a planner for Venango County, Pa., where the immigrant population is less than 1 percent says that he is “very adamant that if you pay taxes, you should be allowed the same equal rights under our Constitution.”

Joanquin Avila, author of a University of California at Los Angeles policy brief entitled “Political Apartheid in California: Consequences of Excluding a Growing Non-citizen Population” and visiting professor at Seattle University School of Law says, “The key question is: what is the relationship to the economic infrastructure and social infrastructure here? If they have a vested interest in the well-being of this society, they need to be able to participate in the political process.”

Whether non-citizens should have the right to vote in local and school board elections is an issue clouded by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks for many Americans, says Ron Hayduk, professor of political science at Manhattan Community College and co-director of the national Immigrant Voting Project. He stresses that the largest stumbling block to immigrant suffrage remains the war on terrorism. “September 11th was a very frightening moment that has not gone away and is kept alive by politicians and the media,” he says. “It heightens people’s concerns about foreigners even more.”

Sibley Fleming is an Atlanta-based freelance writer.