You may have a hard time imagining it, but some politicians in New York City thought they could unilaterally give non-citizens the right to vote in municipal elections. You may be unsurprised to find out that the state’s Supreme Court rejected that idea. Fox News’s Ronn Blitzer reports:
The New York Supreme Court ruled Monday that a New York City law that allowed noncitizen residents to vote in municipal elections is illegal.
The law, passed in December 2021 by the New York City Council, created a class of voters called “municipal voters,” comprised of noncitizens who reside in the city for at least 30 days before an election and register or pre-register to vote. Under the law, municipal voters were granted the right to participate in elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and council member.
“The New York State Constitution explicitly lays the foundation for ascertaining that only proper citizens retain the right to voter privileges,” Richmond County Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio said in the court’s ruling. “It is this Court’s belief that by not expressly including non-citizens in the New York State Constitution, it was the intent of the framers for non-citizens to be omitted.”
The bill first became law automatically after former Mayor Bill de Blasio and current Mayor Eric Adams both declined to either sign or veto it. De Blasio had openly expressed concerns about it, recognizing that there were “big legal questions” surrounding it. He had also stated that he was worried the noncitizen residents of the city – estimated to be somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million people – would have less incentive to become citizens.
The Republican National Committee and New York Republican State Committee joined a group of officeholders and individual voters who sued city officials over the law, arguing that it violates the New York State Constitution, state election law, and the Municipal Home Rule Law. They also claimed that their votes would be diluted by allowing noncitizens to vote.
Upon examining Articles II and IX of the State Constitution, Judge Porzio added that “it is clear to this Court that voting is a right granted to citizens of the United States,” and thus the city law granting the right to noncitizens violates the constitution.
Action Line: If New York City politicians can come up with something as strange as non-citizen voting, how many other bad laws have they enacted? Escape the city. Find a place in America where politicians care about the actual citizens living there. If you need encouragement to make the move, click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter. I’ll push you to find a better America today.
