“People were voting to make a difference in the education system,” said Maria Luna, a longtime community activist and a Democratic district leader, who said the benefits of the effort extended beyond the immigrant community. “The priority was to get better education and to build more schools for everybody. … It was really, really important for the benefit of children.”
New York put its mayor in charge of schools in 2002, shuttering the local boards and ending noncitizen voting with them.
Now, two decades later, a national movement to give voting rights to legal noncitizens has found its way to the country’s most populous city and, pending court battles, will soon give those immigrants the chance to shape local elections.
Every voter who’s able to turn out is good for our democracy.
Nora Moran
About 800,000 green card holders and others authorized to work in the country will become eligible to vote for mayor, City Council and other local offices. New York is by far the largest city to make such a move.
The impact on local elections could potentially be far-reaching. The city’s electorate consists of just under 5 million active registered voters, meaning a major push to register immigrants and get them to the polls could reshape politics in New York. Voting blocs like the one that elected Linares could have the power to affect the outcome of not just City Council races but even the next mayoral race.
Proponents say noncitizen voting will give more political clout to communities whose concerns have often been overlooked, and force candidates and elected officials to be responsive to a broader swath of the population. Opponents — who are challenging the law in court — predict it could be a logistical nightmare, and charge the increased influence for immigrant voters could come at the expense of U.S.-born Black voters.
Noncitizens will be able to register to vote in December, and participate in elections starting in 2023. The first big test will be a City Council primary set for June of next year. All Council members will be up for reelection after just two years because of redistricting. And Mayor Eric Adams, who signed the law despite some reservations, will have to build his 2025 reelection strategy around a changed voting demographic should he seek another term.
“Every voter who’s able to turn out is good for our democracy,” said Nora Moran, director of policy and advocacy at United Neighborhood Houses, a progressive nonprofit group that supported the bill. “One of the whole purposes of the bill is not only to bring people’s voices in, but make elected leaders more accountable to their neighborhoods and push them in a direction of being more responsive.”
Noncitizen voting, then and now
New York wasn’t alone in allowing some form of noncitizen voting in years past: as many as 40 states practiced it at some point from the 18th century through the early 20th century, according to research by Ron Hayduk, a professor at San Francisco State University who has studied noncitizen voting, including the New York school board election. The practice was abolished in the last of those states nearly a hundred years ago.
A handful of states have explicitly banned noncitizen voting in recent years even though they already restricted voting to U.S. citizens.
Today, 11 cities and towns in Maryland allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, and two jurisdictions in Vermont have voted to authorize it. San Francisco allows noncitizens to vote in school board elections only.
Takoma Park in Maryland has 13,000 registered voters, a few hundred of whom are noncitizens. Turnout among noncitizens has ranged from single digits to over a third.
“When people find out they’re eligible to register and vote, they’re often pleasantly surprised to learn that and appreciate the opportunity. We really view ourselves as an inclusive community, and want to make sure everyone feels welcome here,” said Jessie Carpenter, Takoma Park’s city clerk.
But given the demographics, the impact on local races has been limited. “It doesn’t necessarily have an effect on our elections. The numbers are pretty small, compared to our total voter population,” Carpenter said.
A rally is held on the steps of City Hall ahead of a City Council vote to allow lawful permanent residents to cast votes in elections to pick the mayor, City Council members and other municipal officeholders on Dec. 9, 2021 in New York.
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Mary Altaffer/AP Photo
In New York City, which has been a magnet for immigrants from around the world since its inception, the change could be further reaching.
Dominicans are the largest group of immigrants in the city, numbering nearly 400,000, of all immigration statuses. China is the second biggest country of origin, followed by Jamaica, Mexico, Guyana, Ecuador and Bangladesh.
In an overwhelmingly Democratic metropolis, their political preferences are diverse.
“South Asians seem to be relatively progressive in their voting, while East Asians this year moved a little to the right. And Dominicans, I think, are still relatively progressive while South Americans are somewhat more moderate,” said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant who focuses on demographic analysis. “If it turns out a significant number of noncitizens are voting, those differences will matter.”
New York City estimates just under 10 percent of its population consists of green card holders and immigrants with other legal statuses, roughly the group covered by the noncitizen voting legislation, according to data gathered by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
The city is home to some 3 million immigrants, most of whom are already naturalized citizens. Another 476,000 are undocoumented immigrants who will not be eligible to vote under the new law.
Noncitizens could influence a citywide race — especially a close election under the city’s new ranked choice voting system, which saw Adams triumph by just a few thousand votes over his nearest challenger in the final round. But the biggest changes are likely to occur in local races in immigrant-rich neighborhoods.
In the 1980s, when New York had its local school board system, the efforts to organize noncitizen voters and other immigrants “elevated the plight of their students and these families, including out of date school books, overcrowded schools,” Hayduk said. That meant the school system and the city spent more money to improve those issues.
Now, he said, noncitizen voting will lead to changes at City Hall.
“The greatest impact is going to be on the City Council,” Hayduk said. “That’s where I think you’ll see the greatest potential for immigrant communities to organize.”
City statistics suggest that places like Flushing and Jackson Heights, both in Queens, will see the most shake-up in their voter base.
People cross a busy street in the shopping district of Flushing, a largely Asian American neighborhood.
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Kathy Willens/AP Photo
While the city does not measure the precise population covered by the voting legislation, it has tracked lawful permanent residents who are eligible to become citizens but have not done so.
Flushing in Queens — home to many Chinese and Korean immigrants — topped the list for that population, followed by Jackson Heights and north Corona. Then came Washington Heights and Inwood in Manhattan, where there is still a large population of Dominican immigrants, Sunnyside and Woodside in Queens, Bensonhurst and Bath Beach in Brooklyn, and Elmhurst and south Corona in Queens.
Each of the top ten districts is home to 15,000 or more immigrants eligible for naturalization, the city’s data show.
When City Council Member Shekar Krishnan was campaigning for his seat last year in Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, he made a point of reaching out to constituents with roots around the world in a mostly Latino and Asian district.
“Residents would come up to me when I was out door knocking and out on Election Day and say, ‘We support all of your policies, but we aren’t able to vote for you,’” Krishnan, a Democrat and former civil rights lawyer, said.
Krishnan said the lack of voting rights has translated into less attention from city government for issues including debt-laden taxi drivers and pandemic aid for immigrant workers ineligible for federal help.
“I don’t think it was any accident that the city, throughout this pandemic, ignored the needs of our most essential workers,” he said. “It was the biggest failure of city government during this pandemic, but it was no accident.”
‘I don’t think it ever goes into effect’
Opposition to the noncitizen voting law has come from Republicans and some Democrats.
Laurie Cumbo, a Democrat who was City Council majority leader at the time, argued during the debate on the law at a Council meeting that introducing hundreds of thousands of new immigrant voters would dilute the power of Black voters.
In areas like upper Manhattan — home to large Black and Latino communities as well as an influx of newer white residents — she said the bill could shift the balance of power against Black voters. She cited an increase in votes for former President Donald Trump in immigrant neighborhoods in the 2020 election.
“This particular legislation is going to shift the power dynamics in New York City in a major way,” Cumbo said. “The only thing that many African American communities have left are their Black representatives and representation.”
Republicans quickly sued to stop the noncitizen voting law, arguing it is illegal under the state constitution and state election law. More recently, a conservative legal group filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of Black voters, charging that the law is racially discriminatory.
New York’s constitution says that every citizen is entitled to vote as long as they are at least 18 years old and have lived in the jurisdiction for 30 days. The Republicans’ suit also cites a state election law that says no one shall be qualified to register to vote unless they are a citizen of the United States. The city filed a response on Friday, denying any violations of the law.
The court battle could get more complicated, depending on how the city Board of Elections moves to implement the law. The city law requires the board to produce a report on its plans by July, but the city Board of Elections recently punted and sent a letter to the state Board of Elections asking how to proceed. The board is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
“I don’t think it ever goes into effect,” City Council Republican minority leader Joe Borelli said of the noncitizen voting law. “I can tell you with certainty, none of the five Republicans [BOE commissioners] will be voting to take any action on this. And their rationale is state law prohibits us.”
BOE has not heard back from the state board but expects to meet the July deadline, a spokesperson said.
John Ketcham, a fellow with the conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute, warned of unintended consequences if the new voting system does proceed.
The BOE, which has become notorious for a history of election flubs, would be charged with maintaining voter lists distinguishing who is eligible to vote in which elections, and making sure voters are given the correct ballots. (City elections are held on odd years, but there are cases like district attorney races where state elections are held at the same time.)
“The Board of Elections has chronic and systemic problems that will certainly contribute to their difficulty in administering this,” Ketcham said.
Noncitizens who erroneously vote in federal or state elections could face legal consequences — and even those who vote legally at the municipal level will be required to explain themselves when applying for U.S. citizenship, Ketcham said.
“It’s not worth putting our noncitizen voters at that risk of jeopardy,” he said.