Can Non Citizens Register To Vote In California'

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The push for voting rights to be extended to non-citizens of the Us is gaining momentum every bit immigrants fix to vote in the upcoming San Francisco Unified school board retrieve election on Tuesday, Feb 15.

At a time when xix states have passed more restrictive voter laws to make information technology more difficult for U.S. citizens to cast a election, there is a push to expand voting rights in local elections to not-citizens in cities, both big and small, across the country.

"Everybody wants the same thing. They want their kids to take a good education and they want them to take a successful life," said Siva Raj.

Information technology'south a truism that unites parents and led Raj to start collecting signatures in early 2021.

Raj is i of the two parents who kicked off the think of iii San Francisco Unified Schoolhouse Board members.

If yous're on the ABC7 News app, click here to sentry live

He moved to San Francisco from the East Bay with his two sons Rishaan and Shriyans in late 2020.

He said he was disappointed course instruction was virtual only, and school buildings remained closed at the time, before vaccines were widely available.

"I couldn't sign the petition myself," he laughs. "Which is even so controlled by a unlike police force completely."

However, under the law, Raj, an immigrant from India in the U.Southward. on a work visa, tin vote in the upcoming San Francisco Unified schoolhouse lath recall election.

VIDEO: Fight for equal access to vote continues on what would be MLK's 93rd birthday

Non-citizens, who are San Francisco residents with a child nether 19, have had that right since 2017 thanks to voter-approved Proposition N.

The measure was backed by the Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative every bit the grouping advocated for the 34% percent of San Francisco residents built-in outside of the U.S.

"Information technology's super important to go on to do this outreach work and educate folks, even across the February retrieve ballot," said Crystal Van, an outreach managing director for the group Chinese for Affirmative Activity.

The non-partisan, San Francisco-based civil rights system has been around since 1969.

Most recently, Chinese for Affirmative Activeness has helped spread the discussion through Zoom events and community outreach that non-citizens accept a say in the upcoming recall.

RELATED: How to spot voter intimidation and what to do nearly it

The temporary right was made permanent past San Francisco Supervisors in 2021 and expanded to include school lath retrieve elections.

"As a non-denizen, to participate in that procedure and to be able to brand my voice heard, I think that's astonishing," said Raj.

According to the San Francisco Department of Elections, 196 non-citizens are registered to vote in the upcoming school board recall.

This number is a significant increase from the outset fourth dimension not-citizens could practice the correct in 2018, when 65 registered to vote and 59 voted.

"San Francisco is once once more putting immigrant voting on the map for folks in the Usa, reviving what was historically widespread common practice," said Ron Hayduk, Ph.D. professor of political science at San Francisco State University.

Hayduk noted that until Earth War I, it was common for by and large white, European immigrant men to vote in local, country, and federal elections or even hold elected office without citizenship.

Non-citizens were voting earlier women gained the right to vote with the 19th Amendment and before Blackness people gained voter protections with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

VIDEO: Senate fails to change filibuster rule to allow passage of voting rights legislation

Today, there's a growing movement to reconsider who should be able to legally bandage a election at a fourth dimension when 19 states accept passed more than restrictive voting measures.

"The existent questions are, 'Who's a legitimate fellow member of the community?' and 'Who's a stakeholder?'" said Hayduk.

Fifteen jurisdictions in the Usa accept restored immigrant voting, including 11 villages and cities in Maryland, two cities in Vermont, San Francisco, and New York.

Hayduk notes equally many equally 45 countries allow immigrants to vote at the local, regional and fifty-fifty national level.

New York City became the first major city in the land to extend voting rights to non-U.S. citizens belatedly last year, making an estimated 800,000 voters eligible to vote in local elections in 2023 for the first fourth dimension.

RELATED: Prop 17 passes, restoring felony parolees' right to vote in California

A similar measure gained traction in San Jose last month.

According to the U.S. Census information, 40% of residents in San Jose, the nation's tenth largest metropolis, were born outside of the country. Many have go naturalized citizens, but a meaning number have not.

San Jose Commune v Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco representing east San Jose made the proposal.

"We have to give people an opportunity to voice their stance and their volition, and specially how nosotros're going to manage their coin," said Councilmember Carrasco.

The quango is now exploring feasibility, and could place the measure on the ballot for voters to decide this fall.

"Many of these workers had to exist in person on the frontline taking care of the rest of us so that nosotros could actually shelter in place during the pandemic," Carrasco said.

She also emphasized that these immigrants come up from all over the earth from Asia to Latin America.

These members of our community also come from all walks of life. Some piece of work in tech in Silicon Valley and others piece of work under sweltering atmospheric condition in our farms keeping food in our grocery stores.

The Santa Clara Canton Registrar of Voters confirms to ABC7 News its systems tin back up bringing an estimated 200,000 additional voters online which would likely mean making separate ballots so non-citizens don't accidentally vote in a state or federal ballot - a error that could jeopardize citizenship.

RELATED: What is voter suppression? Tactics used against communities of color throughout history, in 2020

"We're treading in very nuanced waters," said Amanda Alvardo-Ford, a licensed immigration attorney and executive director of La Raza Centro Legal.

La Raza Centro Legal is a San Francisco-based legal assistance organisation helping immigrant and depression-income workers.

As a licensed immigration attorney, Alvarado-Ford urges all non-citizens to consult an immigration lawyer before voting.

She explains, "in the immigration law community we're non certain how the federal regime is going to care for that question on the N-400 citizenship application which asks every applicant for citizenship. 'Take yous ever voted in a local, a state or a federal election at any time?'"

VIDEO: From Jim Crow to 2020, a history of voter suppression in the United states

She believes a 'yes' to that question might be used to bar some immigrants from citizenship.

Raj said he'due south done his homework, consulted his attorney, and now he'southward ready to vote.

"Someone'south going to talk for you. If you don't exercise information technology for yourself," he said.

Guidance from the San Francisco Department of Elections for non-citizen voters is every bit follows:

The ballots are quadrilingual: English, Chinese, Filipino, and Spanish, which removes the need for not-citizens to ask for a card at a polling identify with a specific language. The ballot just includes the iii recall questions regarding the members of the Lath of Teaching. For those not-citizen voters who were registered before Jan 31, we mailed them the ballot.

At polling places, non-citizen voters are included in the roster of voters. This ways non-denizen voters don't need to signal they are not-citizens, they volition only state their name and address as do all other voters, and the poll workers will look for their names in the roster. The roster will bespeak that not-citizens are receive an "EDU ballot" which is the ballot bill of fare that lists only the contests associated with the Board of Education. This arroyo also reduces the need for a person to state they need a non-citizen election when at a polling identify.

For those are not yet registered, they can all the same register for the Feb 2022 election, merely must do then in person either at the City Hall Voting Center or a polling identify.