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The Wall Street Journal reports, on 10 December, that the City Council of New York City has approved, by a vote of 33 to 14, a bill that would permit more than 800,000 non-citizens to vote in municipal elections.
The new voters would be those who have lived within NYC’s five boroughs for at least 30 days, and meet certain other requirements. They must be either lawful permanent residents or be authorized to work in the U.S.
The WSJ notes that NYC is not the first U.S. city to permit non-citizens to vote in its elections, but it is the largest.
The article seems to imply that the bill was introduced by Ydanis Rodgriguez, a Democrat city councilman who emigrated from the Dominican Republic (and who is now, presumably, a citizen). He’s quoted as wondering why, “as a teacher working with a Green Card,” he had to pay taxes but had no say in municipal elections.
NYC’s Mayor Bill de Blasio [who changed his name, for purposes of political opportunism, from Warren Wilhelm!] hasn’t committed to signing the bill into law before he leaves office at the end of December, but he doesn’t have to; it will become law if he neither signs nor vetoes it within 30 days of being passed by the City Council. Perhaps surprisingly, de Blasio has stated his opposition to non-citizen voting, whereas his successor, Mayor-elect Eric Adams, favors it; see “NON-CITIZEN VOTING COMING TO NYC” (23 Nov 2021).
TRENDPOST: It’s still against federal law for non-citizens to vote in federal elections, but there have nevertheless been many allegations of them having done so. And permitting non-citizens to vote in local elections is a growing trend; see “NON-CITIZEN VOTING COMING TO A STATE NEAR YOU” (12 Oct 2021).
Trends Journal thinks it’s fair to surmise that those who favor and promote voting by non-citizens lack both understanding of and respect for the very concept of “citizenship.”