NYC Council passes law allowing 900,000 non-citizens to vote in local elections - SILive.com
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An estimated 900,000 non-citizens moved one step closer Thursday to being able to vote in local elections.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has expressed trepidations about the legislation brought by outgoing Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), but has said he will not veto it meaning that lawful permanent residents will be able to vote for offices like mayor and City Council.
“Inside these chambers, the New York City Council is making history,” Rodriguez, who’s originally from the Dominican Republic, said. “In one of the most diverse cities in the world, we need to ensure that there is adequate representation to all New Yorkers.”
A last-ditch motion seeking to return the bill to committee, effectively killing it until next year’s Council, failed, but sparked a lively debate in the Council in which members raised concerns about the bill, including the brevity of the 30-day residency requirement and its effect on the city’s African-American community.
Several members, including outgoing Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore), said they hoped the next Council would work to address the concerns before the BOE makes its separate ballots. Rose ultimately voted against the motion and in favor of the bill.
City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) and City Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island) supported the motion, and have been speaking out against the bill for months.
“The people in this building are doing something against the state constitution,” Borelli said last week. “This will influence our elections and the people who are registered to vote here today, the citizens of the City of New York, 5.6 million registered voters, ought to have a say in that.”
Borelli has vowed legal action as soon as the mayor signs it into law pointing to existing portions of the state constitution and particularly, its election law, part of which reads “(no) person shall be qualified to register for and vote at any election unless he is a citizen of the United States.”
Staten Island Borough President-elect Vito Fossella has also said he will bring a lawsuit when the mayor signs the bill into law.
In addition to the expected litigation and the work of the next Council, Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-South Shore) has introduced legislation in his chamber aimed at the local law.
Reilly’s legislation, introduced in another chamber controlled by Democrats, would add to the section of state election law that prohibits certain people from voting, including felons. Those unable to vote in the state would be unable to vote in any New York election even if permitted by a local government.
“Allowing more than 800,000 non-citizens to participate in electing the leaders of America’s largest city not only threatens the integrity of our elections, but also sets a dangerous precedent that challenges the concept of citizenship, as well as the rights and responsibilities afforded to citizens of the United States of America,” he said in a written statement.
Rodriguez, who was a green card holder from 1983 to 2000 before earning his citizenship, brought the bill to bring the vote to people who pay into the city’s coffers and have a vested interest in who represents them.
Something that all sides agreed on is that the bill would mark the start of a seismic shift across the nation on who has access to the ballot.
Rodriguez said the he’d use the law as an example to states around the nation who have been trying to make voting more difficult.
“Many other cities across the nation, as well as abroad, are watching this,” he said.
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source: https://www.silive.com/politics/2021/12/nyc-council-passes-law-allowing-900000-non-citizens-to-vote-in-local-elections.html
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