Portland, Maine, considers voting rights for noncitizens

Residents of Portland, Maine, will decide Nov. 2 whether legal residents of their city who are not U.S. citizens should be permitted to participate in municipal elections, the AP reports.

The Maine League of Young Voters, the group behind the controversial "Question 4" ballot measure, argues that since legal residents pay taxes, contribute to the economy, send children to public school and operate within the community much as citizens do, they should be afforded the opportunity to vote.

Portland is not the only place considering voting rights for noncitizens Nov. 2. Voters in San Francisco will be casting ballots on a similar but more restricted measure to allow noncitizens who are parents or caregivers of public school students to vote in school board elections.

Opponents of such measures, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, say residents should pursue citizenship if they want the right to vote and warn that these measures are federally unconstitutional.

FAIR notes in its evaluation of the San Francisco measure that Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California opposed a nearly identical proposal in 2004, stating: "Allowing noncitizens to vote is not only unconstitutional in California, it clearly dilutes the promise of citizenship."

Others fear that granting the vote to noncitizens will unfairly skew results in some jurisdictions toward the interests of immigrant noncitizens--or that the measure could be the first step along a slippery slope leading to expansive rights for illegal immigrants.

Several local municipalities, including communities near Chicago and in Maryland, have already approved measures to grant some voting rights to noncitizens.

(Photo: AP/Chuck Burton)