After suffering losses in State Supreme Court and at the Appellate Division, supporters of the New York City law to allow illegal immigrants and noncitizens to vote in local elections filed their notice of appeal with New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals.
Days later, the New York City Council, the body that initially passed this law, filed their own notice of appeal. The Appellate Division decision in this case, however, was correct; the state constitution does not allow illegal immigrants and noncitizens to vote. The Court of Appeals must uphold the integrity of our elections and let this decision stand.
Unlike the U.S. Constitution, our state constitution explicitly protects the right to vote. The right to vote, however, is a right that can only be exercised by citizens. Neither the state government nor any local government has the power to extend this right to vote to noncitizens.
The New York City law that was challenged is unconstitutional; it is dangerous as well. Under New York City’s noncitizen voter law, a Russian national working at the Russian consulate and living in New York City would be eligible to vote in local New York City elections. The same is true for Chinese nationals. As outrageous as it seems, under New York City’s law, nothing would stop foreign nationals from states hostile to America and Americans from voting in local New York City elections.
And New York City isn’t the only municipality to attempt to open up its local elections to noncitizens. A number of other local governments have followed the Big Apple’s lead. In Vermont, three cities — including Montpelier, the state capital, and Burlington, Vermont’s largest city — permit noncitizens to vote in local elections. When these laws were challenged, Vermont’s highest court, amazingly, found nothing impermissible with giving the right to vote to noncitizens, and the noncitizen voter laws were allowed to remain in place.
This movement to allow noncitizens to vote has even reached our nation’s capital. The government of the District of Columbia, in 2022, enacted a law to allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. The law was challenged, but a court recently rejected this lawsuit on procedural grounds.
Thankfully, efforts are underway to stop the movement to grant voting rights to noncitizens. An amendment to the state constitution prohibiting noncitizens from voting will appear on the ballot in Wisconsin this fall. More recently, an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting noncitizens from voting in any elections was introduced in the Illinois state legislature. Concerned state legislators introduced this amendment after at least one Illinois city began toying with the idea of opening up its elections to noncitizens.
New Yorkers, however, are fortunate; we have a state constitution that upholds the integrity of our electoral system and clearly states that citizens — and only citizens — may vote in our elections.
The voting rights of American citizens are infringed upon when voting rights are granted to noncitizens. New York City made a terrible decision almost three years ago by opening up its local elections to noncitizens. Both courts to hear the challenge to this law made the right decision, defended our state constitution, and invalidated the noncitizen voter law. The Court of Appeals must uphold these lower court decisions and maintain the integrity of New York’s electoral system.
Joseph T. Burns is a Republican election lawyer and the former Deputy Director of Election Operations at the New York State Board of Elections.