Judge says NYC can’t let noncitizens vote in city elections
Published:Monday | June 27, 2022 | 2:51 PM
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City can't let noncitizens vote for mayor and other city officials, a judge ruled Monday, siding with Republicans who challenged the measure as unconstitutional.
In January, New York became the first major US city to grant widespread municipal voting rights to noncitizens, though none had cast ballots yet.
The law didn't affect presidential, congressional or state elections.
The law's supporters said it gave an electoral voice to many people who have made a home in the city and paid taxes to it but face tough paths to citizenship.
New York GOP Chair Nick Langworthy and several Republican elected officials said the law violated provisions in the state constitution and state election law that specifically confer voting rights on citizens.
State court Judge Ralph Porzio agreed with the GOP.
“Though voting is a right that so many citizens take for granted, the City of New York cannot 'obviate' the restrictions imposed by the Constitution,” wrote Porzio, whose court is on Staten Island.
His ruling blocks the city from registering potentially more than 800,000 new voters without US citizenship.
Legally documented, voting-age noncitizens comprise nearly one in nine of New York City's seven million voting-age inhabitants.
More than a dozen communities across the United States allow noncitizens to cast ballots in local elections, including 11 towns in Maryland and two in Vermont.
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