The suit seeks to prevent the D.C. Board of Elections from implementing the D.C. Noncitizen Voting Act, passed by the D.C. Council in October.
lost in a landslide to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser last year, said noncitizen voting is not a partisan issue, but a “power grab” that discriminates against citizens.The legislation allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections was enacted without Bowser’s signature — though allHouse Republicans led an effort to block the legislation, and 42 Democrats joined them in, with some noting they viewed the right to vote as “fundamental” to U.S. citizenship.
Other jurisdictions in the Washington area already allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, including Takoma Park, Md. At least seven states, including Ohio and Florida, have banned the practice.Jose Barrios, who leads the D.C. Latino Caucus — a Democratic group that advocated for the legislation — said their support for the bill was based on a basic premise: that all people impacted by local laws should “have a voice in who enacts those laws.
Noncitizens pay taxes, run businesses and send their children to public schools, he said. He described the argument that allowing noncitizens to vote would “dilute” the votes of American citizens as a mirror of efforts throughout history to block expanding the franchise to various demographic groups.
“The same argument has been rehashed every time that we wanted to expand voting rights, whether it was for Black people, for Brown people or for women,” Barrios said. “It has always been an argument, about diluting the voter franchise, by people who feel like they have something to lose. We think that expanding democracy is a good thing — it is not a bad thing.”
Barrios said the next stage of the group’s advocacy will be education — making sure that those who will be newly eligible to vote in municipal elections know how to register. A D.C. Council committee has proposed $1.4 million in the fiscal year 2024 budget, which will be voted on this month, to implement the law — funding that includes resources for outreach to residents.
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