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Do noncitizens have explicit rights to vote in some US local elections?

Wednesday, November 25, 2020
By Esther Tsvayg
YES

While voting in national elections is limited to U.S. citizens, a few cities have extended the right to vote in some elections to noncitizens.

San Francisco voters in 2016 approved allowing noncitizens with school-age children, regardless of legal status, to vote in elections for the city's school board. Chicago has had similar legislation since 1988, but excludes parents not legally authorized to be in the U.S. Maryland has ten towns that permit noncitizen voting.

Two states, Arizona and North Dakota, explicitly ban noncitizens from voting in either state or local elections. No other state constitutions specifically grant noncitizens voting rights at either state or local level.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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