noncitizen voting – Los Angeles City Council unanimously pulled a measure from the Nov. 3 ballot that would have created a pathway for noncitizens to vote in local elections, sending the draft to committee after concerns about outreach and unanswered practical and security questi
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council moved a proposal that would have widened voting rights—then stopped it before it could reach the Nov. 3 ballot.
In a unanimous vote, councilmembers decided to pull draft ballot language that would have created a pathway to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. The council sent the draft language to a committee for additional study after multiple councilmembers said it had not been properly vetted.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez acknowledged he had not done enough outreach on the proposal. He also pointed to letters he received from members of the Black community voicing concerns. “I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. The Black and Brown solidarity is deep to me. and means something to me. and I don’t want this to be something that gets pushed through that is seen as a negative. something negative for the city of Los Angeles. ” he said.
Soto-Martínez said he would keep pursuing the proposal in a future election. When it passes, he said, the city can have a “big celebration.”
But the noncitizen voting measure was not the only ballot item the council sent away at the last minute.
In a separate vote, the council scrapped plans for a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would have given council members power over policy at the Los Angeles Police Department. The Board of Los Angeles Police Commissioners, whose members are appointed by the mayor, currently has that responsibility.
That police-related proposal was rejected by a vote of 8-6. The vote came after the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file LAPD officers, threatened to sue the city. The union said labor negotiators failed to meet and confer with it over the proposal.
The noncitizen voting plan itself was unveiled by Soto-Martínez two months ago. It would have authorized the City Council to pass an ordinance allowing noncitizens to cast ballots in L.A. city and school board elections.
Yet several details still had not been worked out, including which groups would receive the franchise and whether Los Angeles County election officials would be capable of adopting such a system.
Those uncertainties resurfaced Tuesday during debate from Councilmember Traci Park, who voted “yes” on the proposal two weeks ago. This time, she said too much was still unknown about how it would work. She raised concerns about whether the city could protect noncitizen voters if federal immigration agents show up at polling places.
“My concern here is that if this goes to the ballot, the voters won’t really know what they’re voting for, because we don’t really know either,” Park said. “These are things that should be figured out well in advance before we put anything in the charter at all.”
Councilmember John Lee also pointed to risks based on the experience of a neighboring state city. He held up a print-out of a warning on the San Francisco elections website. San Francisco allows noncitizens to vote in school board elections. and the website includes a notice stating: “Any information you provide to the Department of Elections. including your name and address. may be obtained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies. organizations. and individuals.”.
Lee said he was not trying to stoke fear. “Given the experience of the only California city that currently allows noncitizen voting, it is not fear mongering to raise these concerns,” he said. “They are real issues that must be addressed before Los Angeles asks voters to approve a similar system.”
Soto-Martínez pushed back on those warnings. He characterized the objections raised by Lee and Park as fear mongering, and he said immigrant rights groups were ready to move forward with his proposal.
“This country was created by people taking courage and pushing so that everyone can have the right to vote,” Soto-Martínez said.
The council’s decisions left the proposals in limbo: the noncitizen voting measure headed to committee instead of the ballot box. and the police-related plan was dropped entirely. with legal pressure a clear factor behind the reversal. For now, the fight has shifted from voters’ choices on Nov. 3 to the hard questions councilmembers say must be answered first—who would vote. how it would work. and what could happen at the polls.
Los Angeles City Council noncitizen voting Nov. 3 ballot Hugo Soto-Martínez Traci Park John Lee LAPD ballot measure Los Angeles Police Protective League ICE San Francisco elections website