[EL] equal numbers of VOTERS, rather than residents - let noncitizens vote?

[Michael McDonald]

He may just be calling for expedited naturalization processing to make
non-citizens into citizens.

If one valued the principles originally articulated by our Founding Fathers,
then there is an argument to allow non-citizens in the naturalization
process to vote. In the early days of the country, there was a fear that
immigrants would not feel loyalty to the nascent country and the fragile
union would fracture. One must remember that at the time America was
seriously threatened by foreign governments, so this was not an idle
concern. One way to encourage people, particularly those in the "west," to
feel that they were Americans was to allow non-citizens to vote if they
intended to become citizens. Today, if one similarly valued assimilation of
non-citizens, one might be attracted to a policy to grant voting eligibility
to non-citizens who intend to become citizens. 

Today, non-citizens are allowed to vote in some local elections where they
own property and government actions affect their taxes, such as local bond
referenda. In fact, if property was the only eligibility requirement, it
would be possible for a person to be eligible to vote more than once in
different jurisdictions on the same election day, which is another policy
our Founding Fathers were familiar with but today we abhor. The same is true
for the government being responsible for maintaining voter eligibility
(registration) lists and early voting. It used to be common practice that
local governments were responsible for creating the lists of who was
eligible to vote -- what we might today call universal registration or
modernization -- and that the voting period extended for several days to
provide convenience of voting to people living in remote rural areas.

Which is all to say that our electoral rules have changed in the past and
will continue to change in the future. (I suppose there must be one since
the world did not end today at midnight, east coast time.)

============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor, George Mason University 
Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution

                             Mailing address:
(o) 703-993-4191             George Mason University
(f) 703-993-1399             Dept. of Public and International Affairs
mmcdon at gmu.edu               4400 University Drive - 3F4
http://elections.gmu.edu     Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of David A.
Holtzman
Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2011 1:46 AM
To: [EL]
Subject: Re: [EL] equal numbers of VOTERS, rather than residents - let
noncitizens vote?

On Thursday night, Zócalo Public Square hosted a discussion of civic
engagement and “Why Don't Californians Talk About Politics?”

Here's an excerpt from the summary of the event at
http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/05/19/we-need-to-talk/rea
d/event-rundown/ :

“[T]oward the end of the panel, [moderator Joe Mathews, co-author of
“California Crackup”] asked panelists to give a 30-second answer about the
biggest thing the state can do to improve civic participation.  . . . 

“Speaking last, [John Rogers, a professor of education at UCLA and the
founder of the university’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access]
gave an unexpected answer.

“‘Californians should work on the federal level for comprehensive
immigration reform,’ he said. ‘So many people are excluded from the
political process.’”

The sentiment is perhaps another nudge toward allowing noncitizen voting.

  - dah

On 5/19/2011 1:07 AM, David A. Holtzman wrote: 
[...]
To address the disparity in number of registered voters among city council
districts, and to bring politics closer to the people, so to speak, we could
allow noncitizen residents to register and vote in city elections.

I heard that idea some time ago from a [Los Angeles] City
Councilmember-turned-City Council staffer, Mike Hernandez.  I looked up his
Wikipedia entry tonight and read, “in his 1st District, [] a majority of
residents are routinely excluded from having a say on matters of common
concern because they are noncitizens who cannot vote and are on the lower
rung of an electoral caste system that leaves a minority in charge.”  [...]

-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com 
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