Portland (Maine) weighs letting noncitizens vote

[Maine-ah]

http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Portland/Portland-weighs-letting-noncitizens-vote,156921


PORTLAND, Maine — Like his neighbors, Claude Rwaganje pays taxes on his income and taxes on his cars. His children have gone to Portland's public schools. He's interested in the workings of Maine's largest city, which he has called home for 13 years.

There's one vital difference, though: Rwaganje isn't a U.S. citizen and isn't allowed to vote on those taxes or on school issues. That may soon change.

Portland residents will vote Nov. 2 on a proposal to give legal residents who are not U.S. citizens the right to vote in local elections, joining places like San Francisco and Chicago that have already loosened the rules or are considering it.

Noncitizens hold down jobs, pay taxes, own businesses, volunteer in the community and serve in the military, and it's only fair they be allowed to vote, Rwaganje said.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Does the Constitution limit the right to vote in elections to only citizens?

[Xipe Totec]

2. Federal elections nt

[Maine-ah]

3. yes.

[mysuzuki2]

4. Actually, there is precedent for non-citizen voting

Wisconsin used to allow voting in local and state elections in the 19th century. There is no constitutional bar to this if states want to allow it. Good idea? I'm not sure.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Right. It's not a new concept

and allowing the vote for local issues doesn't give noncitizens the right to vote in state or Federal elections.

I think it would make local elections a bit more expensive because there would need to be some good way to separate noncitizens from citizens, perhaps by holding elections on different days or requiring noncitizens to register with city hall before voting and then carry a special voter card.

The rightwingers are all going nuts over this.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. My town in ME

...is split between two state senate districts. There's no problem with the two different state ballots, nor the information in the register regarding which senate district you belong to. One more field in the data base, is all. I get a senate district-specific state ballot, a local ballot, and a federal ballot.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. But there was a cost to set it up, as there would be in Ptld if they approved this measure.

Also, because of the number of screaming RWers in the state I doubt that anything but a completely separate system would pass muster.

[Davis_X_Machina]

13. No --it would be a database issue only.

Portland has a two-ballot system already -- you just hand your non-citizen residents only a municipal ballot. Muni ballots are separate from state ballots. The cost of a few hundred at most 'extra' muni ballots is negligible.

Cost is not a reason not to do it.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Hah. I don't recall having two ballots in Ptld, but it's been years since I voted there.

In that case, the major costs are developing and implementing the system for identifying eligible noncitizen voters and then a modest ongoing maintenance cost for registrations and the database but that would still be substantially less costly than segregating the local ballot. Presumably any cost for translation has already been budgeted for the citizen voters from the same language groups but if the addition of immigrants would add significant numbers in additional language groups that would be another ongoing cost.

Has the Press Herald or BDN published cost estimates for implementation?

[WinkyDink]

5. Um...no. By definition a NON-citizen has less inherent interest in the fortunes of the nation.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Which is why they wouldn't be able to vote in national, i.e. federal, elections n/t

[high density]

10. Everybody who visits an area pays taxes

When you go on trip you pay taxes to stay in a hotel, rent a car, eat food, etc. I don't think paying taxes, owning a business, or volunteering automatically gives you the right to participate in a local election.

[Davis_X_Machina]

14. Having your legal domicle there does -- or should.

We're not talking transients -- we're talking a population that isn't significantly more or less mobile than a city's population usually is, especially one like Portland, which is full of students, and young people, and a fair number of snowbirds....

[Codeine]

11. That really seems like an awful idea.

I can't even articulate why, it just seems wrong. :shrug:

[rug]

12. It's a boost for state citizenship and state rights. It would paralyze teabaggers.

[Ginto]

16. The natural extension would be to allow out of staters to vote.

People with vacation homes in the area? Frequent tourists? Seems ill-conceived.

[rug]

17. If they want to make a states' right issue out of it, they could set state residency requirements.

[Gormy Cuss]

19. Residents, not tourists.

That's no different than the stipulation for voter registration now. Portland doesn't have many seasonal residents except on Peaks Island and if seasonal owners wanted to declare it their principal residence they'd be entitled to vote like any other resident. Of course, that would mean that they're legally residents for state and Federal purposes too. Most summer complaints on Peaks are from out of state and wouldn't want to change their voter registration just for the privilege of local voting.

[FLAprogressive]

18. why can't he become a citizen? He sounds like a smart guy.....

[defendandprotect]

20. I'd be for that ....