New York’s Noncitizen Voting Is Illegal A state judge strikes down the city’s law to enfranchise about 800,000 aliens.
Well, that was quick work. In December the New York City Council passed a law to let about 800,000 noncitizens vote in local elections. Mayor Eric Adams, man of action, neither signed nor vetoed the bill, allowing it to take effect. But on Monday a state judge declared it “illegal, null and void because it violates the New York Constitution.”
This was always a distinct possibility, as we warned at the time. The state constitution guarantees “every citizen” the right to vote, “provided that such citizen” is 18 years old and has lived in New York for 30 days. Another constitutional section promises a process “for ascertaining, by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage.”
Ah-ha, argued advocates of the city’s bill: The constitution says “citizens” may vote, but it is silent about noncitizens. This is the kind of too-cute-by-half logic that gives the legal profession a bad name. If it prevailed, then could the city enfranchise 12-year-old noncitizens? After all, the constitution’s age requirement for citizens wouldn’t apply to them.
“It is this Court’s belief,” says a Staten Island judge, “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.” Also, this is state law: “No person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless he is a citizen of the United States.”
Add New York’s law on home rule, which says that any local change to “the method of nominating, electing or removing an elective officer” must go through public referendum, which this didn’t. How many ways is the city’s noncitizen voting plan illegal? We’ve lost count.
It’s also a bad idea. To vote, the law said foreigners must at least have work authorization, and the argument was they pay taxes like everyone else. Yet Americans with second homes in New York might pay taxes or have a stake in efficient public services, and they don’t get to vote for Mayor. If green-card holders want ballots, they can apply for citizenship.
One Democratic councilman who opposed the law said the 30-day residency rule was too short, since it would cover “a transient” and leave New York “vulnerable to outside influence.” Or think of the practical headaches. The city’s Board of Elections is no case study in competence, to put it lightly. Since noncitizens can’t vote in federal races, it would have needed to manage two registration lists and two sets of ballots.
Perhaps proponents of the law will appeal. But sometimes, especially in a one-party state like New York, a judge’s job is to block politically self-serving power grabs.
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