D.C. City Councilman Introduces Bill That Would Allow Non-Citizens to Vote

A bill has been introduced to the D.C. City Council that would allow non-citizens to vote.

Councilmember David Grosso, I-At-Large, introduced the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015, a bill that, if passed, would allow non-citizens with permanent resident immigration status to vote in municipal elections.

Grosso said in a statement that non-citizens living in D.C. are still affected by issues impacting their community:

“’All politics is local’ is a common phrase in the U.S. political system and what most District residents care about are the tangible things that affect their day-to-day lives like potholes, playgrounds, taxes, snow removal, trash collection, red light cameras and more.  All of these issues are important to voters in D.C.  Unfortunately, not all of our residents have a say in choosing the officials who make these decisions.  In my opinion, that is unjust…. These are taxpayers who should have the opportunity to have their voices heard in local elections.”

Grosso said that there are almost 54,000 such individuals living in the District of Columbia, approximately 90 percent of whom are 18 or older.

He called the current practice of barring these individuals from voting “anti-immigrant hysteria.”

“Unfortunately, this hysteria continues across the United States, but it does not need to continue any longer in the District of Columbia,” he said.

According to Grosso, there are currently seven jurisdictions in the United States where non-citizens can vote in municipal elections, none of which have resulted in voter fraud in federal elections.

A similar bill failed in 2004, he said, because of “the political climate at the time regarding immigration reform.”