A New York City initiative that would have allowed the city’s approximately 800,000 legal non-citizens the right to vote in local elections was struck down by a state appeals court as unconstitutional.
The proposal, passed as a city law in 2022, would have allowed green card holders and non-citizens living in New York City with federal work authorizations the right to vote in local elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president and members of the New York City Council. This would have created some 800,000 new eligible voters in the city of 8.5 million.
The law was championed by progressive Democrats in the city who claimed that the “Our City, Our Vote” bill would make politics more representative and turn New York City into a more inclusive place for immigrants. Opponents of the bill warned that it would turn into a logistical nightmare leading to voter fraud and that Democrats only wanted to grant legal non-citizens voting rights to shore up their support. (Related: America’s 2024 election may be decided by 23 million ILLEGAL ALIENS.)
The bill was easily passed by the city’s Democratic supermajority in December 2021, but Republicans immediately sued as soon as the bill became law in January 2022. A lower court judge on conservative-leaning Staten Island struck it down months later.
The administration of Mayor Eric Adams has also come to the law’s defense and appealed the lower court’s ruling against it.
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