Noncitizen local voting emerges as key election issue

SANTA ANA, California — This city of nearly 310,000 people isn't well known as a liberal hotbed like a pair of major Golden State cities about a seven-hour drive north, San Francisco and Oakland . That may change after Election Day.

Santa Ana, Orange County's second-most populous city after Disneyland-based Anaheim, is set to host a Nov. 5 ballot measure on whether noncitizens should be allowed to vote in municipal elections. It's no academic matter in a city where an estimated quarter of the local population are noncitizens. Santa Ana is four-fifths Hispanic or Latino and was characterized in a 2016 New York Times story as the "face of a new California , a state where Latinos have more influence in everyday life — electorally, culturally and demographically — than almost anywhere else in the country."

Proponents say allowing noncitizens to vote is about parity and giving those who pay taxes and contribute to a community a say in their local government. Some critics contend that preventing noncitizens from casting ballots reduces the risk of fraud and increases confidence in American democracy.

The measure in Santa Ana, about 34 miles south of Los Angeles, may very well pass. It will share a ballot with the presidential race and a slew of downballot contests in the nation's leading Democratic state.

That would likely trigger a court fight and raise the profile of an issue other opponents say is blatantly unconstitutional.

“Only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections. It’s a shame this even has to be said,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) posted on X on July 5 about the subject generally.

In California, San Francisco became the first city to grant noncitizens some voting rights via a 2016 ballot measure called Proposition N . The measure, which went into effect in 2018, granted parents of schoolchildren the chance to vote in school board races. Oakland voters approved a similar ballot measure in 2022, though the law has not been enacted.

Approval in Santa Ana would only add to the controversy over voting by noncitizens at the local level. Noncitizen voting in federal and state elections is already illegal. But federal law says nothing about local elections.

Noncitizens range from people who are permanent residents of the United States to those who are illegal immigrants. It can include those who have work permits, are refugees, or are here under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

But none of those matters, say opponents, which range from Santa Ana-area locals to organizations with a national scope. They assert voting is a privilege that should be granted only to citizens.

“Fundamentally, we believe that if somebody wants to enjoy the right to vote, they should go all in and become a citizen of this country,” said Jack Tomczak, vice president of outreach for Americans for Citizen Voting, a group that works with state lawmakers to amend their constitutions so that only citizens can vote in state and local elections.

“We’re very pro-naturalization process, and we would hope that people would take the leap,” Tomczak said in an interview.

Voting by noncitizens is allowed by 11 cities in Maryland, three in Vermont, and Chicago for its school board — though no election has been held with those roles by the largest city in Illinois. New York City voters have backed local voting by noncitizens, but the matter is tied up in court.

To counter the spread of local voting by noncitizens, there are seven proposed state constitutional amendments to block it. Wisconsin passed one in April, so it won't share a ballot with White House hopefuls Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and former President Donald Trump, her Republican rival.

North Carolina, broadly considered a swing state — if less so than places like Michigan and Pennsylvania — will host a Nov. 5 ballot measure on noncitizens voting in local elections. So will six states generally that are safely in the Republican presidential column: Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

The ballot language varies, but each aims at current rules that say, in effect, every citizen over 18 is allowed to vote. That would be changed to clarify that “only a U.S. citizen” is allowed to vote, Americans for Citizen Voting's Tomczak said.

Over the past six years, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Ohio have amended their state constitutions.

The push to allow voting by noncitizens is an attempt to restore earlier rules, said Ron Hayduk, a professor of political science at San Francisco State University who is one of the leading scholars in this area.

“Immigrant voting rights were widespread historically — noncitizens could legally vote in 40 states at some point in time between 1776 to 1926 ,” Hayduk said in an email. “Moreover, noncitizens could run for office and were elected as alderman, coroner, and school board member.”

“‘Alien suffrage,’ as these laws were called, were seen not as a substitute for citizenship, but as a pathway to foster citizenship and immigrant integration . As such, the notion that noncitizens should have the vote is older, was practiced longer, and is more consistent with democratic ideals than the idea that they should not,” Hayduk added.

House and Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to overturn a Washington, D.C., law that allows noncitizens to vote in local elections. Rep. William Timmons (R-SC) in May introduced the Demanding Citizenship in D.C. Elections Act, which would require people voting in Washington municipal elections to be U.S. citizens and provide proof of citizenship.

“Only U.S. citizens should be able to vote. Period. Any attempts by liberal cities and states to allow those who broke our laws and entered our country illegally to vote must be stopped,” Timmons said in a statement about the bill.

Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced a companion bill in the Senate on the same day.

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The legislation was introduced after a federal court dismissed a challenge in March from a conservative legal group to the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment of 2022 that allows noncitizens to vote in Washington, D.C., elections.

The law allows all residents over 18 who have lived in the district for 30 days to vote in local elections, regardless of whether they had legal permission to enter the country. They can vote in district races for mayor, council, attorney general, and more, but they cannot participate in federal elections.