Every four years, New Yorkers cast their ballots for Mayor, City Council, and other municipal representatives who are empowered to make the decisions that impact the daily lives of our families and our communities. Those elected will write legislation and determine how our tax dollars will be spent, on issues such as public transportation, schools, the availability of social services, and the development of affordable housing. In many City Council districts, however, more than one out of three residents are barred from choosing who will represent them in government affairs. Legally documented noncitizens — who pay income and sales taxes at the same rate as citizens, send their children to public schools, fight in our military, and make up one fifth of the New York State economy— are excluded from voting.

This was not always the case. Up until 1926, noncitizens in many states had the right to vote in city, state, and even federal elections. And before the Board of Education was dissolved in 2002, all New York City residents with children enjoyed the right to vote for their community school boards – because it was understood that the best way to get parents involved in their children’s education was to include them in how decisions are made.

This is, after all, what democracy is about: a belief that people should have input in the laws that govern them, and a recognition that when our society’s procedures and structures reflect the interest and will of the majority of its members everyone benefits because everyone takes responsibility. When large sectors of the population are left out of the process, disengagement and dissatisfaction ensue.

The US has been moving in the direction of universal suffrage (the right to vote for all) over the course of its history. Many of the groups previously denied voting rights – African-Americans, Chinese-Americans, women – are now included in the electoral process. But the job is not finished, and here in New York, many recognize the importance of adding noncitizens to the list.

There are currently 1.3 million legally-residing noncitizens in our city, or 1 in 5 New Yorkers of voting age. This is a huge number of our neighbors who actively participate in society and pay taxes yet whose voices are not being represented. In our truly multicultural city, it is clear that our officials do not adequately reflect the faces and interests of the people. That is why Councilman Danny Dromm has introduced legislation (Intro 410) that would grant voting rights to all legal NYC residents in municipal elections. (Voting for President and Congress would still be the prerogative of citizens only, since those representatives decide matters of national security and policy.) To date, 22 council members have signed on, and advocates are pushing for a public hearing this spring. If New York succeeds in passing this bill, it will have repercussions across the country.

By Dennis Redmond is the Chief Strategy Officer for Queens Community House and a member of the NY Coalition to Expand Voting Rights.

Cada cuatro años, los neoyorquinos votan por el alcalde, el Consejo Municipal, y otros representantes municipales, quienes están facultados para tomar las decisiones que afectan la vida cotidiana de nuestras familias y nuestras comunidades. Los elegidos escriben la legislación y determinan cómo los dólares de nuestros impuestos se destinarán, en temas tales como el transporte público, las escuelas, la disponibilidad de los servicios sociales y el desarrollo de viviendas asequibles. En muchos distritos municipales, sin embargo, más de uno de cada tres residentes se les impide elegir quién los representará en los asuntos públicos. Los no ciudadanos legalmente documentados — que pagan impuestos en la misma proporción que los ciudadanos, envian a sus hijos a las escuelas públicas, luchan en nuestras fuerzas armadas, y constituyen la quinta parte de la economía del Estado de Nueva York — no tienen derecho a votar.
Esto no siempre fue así. Hasta 1926, los no ciudadanos en muchos estados tenien el derecho a votar en las elecciones municipales, estatales, e incluso las federales. Y antes de que la Junta de Educación se disolvió en 2002, todos los residentes de Nueva York con los niños gozaban del derecho a elegir a los miembros de las juntas – porque se entiende que la mejor manera de conseguir que los padres participen en la educación de sus hijos era incluirlos en cómo se toman las decisiones.

Esto es, después de todo, del que se trata la democracia: la creencia de que las personas deben tener injerencia en las leyes que los rigen, y el reconocimiento de que cuando los procedimientos de nuestra sociedad y las estructuras reflejan el interés y la voluntad de la mayoría de sus miembros, todos se benefician porque todo el mundo asume la responsabilidad. Cuando amplios sectores de la población quedan fuera del proceso, la separación y la insatisfacción sobrevienen.

En los EE.UU. a lo largo de su historia se ha progresado en la dirección del sufragio universal (el derecho al voto para todos). Muchos de los grupos que anteriormente no tenien el derecho de voto – los afro-americanos, chino-americanos, las mujeres – se incluyen ahora en el proceso electoral. Pero el trabajo no se ha terminado, y aquí en Nueva York, muchos reconocen la importancia de añadir a la lista los no ciudadanos.

Actualmente hay 1,3 millones de los no ciudadanos que residen legalmente en nuestra ciudad, o 1 de cada 5 neoyorquinos en edad de votar. Se trata de un gran número de nuestros vecinos que participan activamente en la sociedad y pagan los impuestos. Sin embargo, sus voces no están representados. En nuestra ciudad verdaderamente multicultural, está claro que nuestros oficiales no reflejan adecuadamente las caras y los intereses de las personas. Por eso, el concejal Danny Dromm ha introducido legislación (Intro 410) que otorga el derecho a votar a todos los residentes legales de Nueva York en las elecciones municipales. (La votación para Presidente y el Congreso seguiría una prerrogativa de los ciudadanos solamente, ya que son los representantes que deciden sobre asuntos polticos y de seguridad nacional.) Hasta la fecha, 22 miembros (de los 51) del Consejo Municiapal la han firmado, y los defensores están presionando para tener un foro publico con el Consejo en la primavera. Si Nueva York logra la aprobación de esta ley, tendrá repercusiones en todo el país.

Por Dennis Redmond es el Director de Estrategia de Queens Community House y miembro de la Coalición de Nueva York para Ampliar los Derechos de Voto.

Par CORDÉLIA BONAL recueilli par
Politologue au CNRS, Hervé Andrès, est l’auteur d’une thèse de doctorat sur le droit de vote des étrangers («Le droit de vote des étrangers, Etat des lieux et fondements théoriques », université Paris Diderot, 2007.

Peut-on dire aujourd’hui que la majorité des pays européens ont mis en place le droit de vote des étrangers aux élections locales ?

Oui… et non. Les 27 Etats membres de l’Union européenne ont tous au moins ouvert le droit de vote aux résidents européens. Seulement dix Etats de l’UE (dont la France) se sont limités à cette seule ouverture.

Quatre autres Etats de l’UE ont des dispositions permettant l’ouverture supplémentaire à certains citoyens non membres de l’UE, mais pas à tous (au citoyens du Commonwealth seulement s’agissant du Royaume-Uni, selon des accords bilatéraux de réciprocité en Espagne, de réciprocité et de lusophonie au Portugal…). Full Article

As the federal government moves to deport more immigrants, Mayor John DeStefano disclosed a plan on an opposite track: To lobby the state legislature to allow all New Haven’s immigrants, including non-citizens, to vote in local elections.

DeStefano (pictured) made the disclosure Tuesday morning after a press conference outside the Columbus Family Academy at 255 Blatchley Ave., where he and other politicians gathered to announce their opposition to the federal “Secure Communities initiative” to deport more immigrants who are here illegally.

DeStefano said he plans to lobby the state for a “resident voting rights” bill that would allow any resident of New Haven—regardless of immigration status—to vote in municipal elections in New Haven. He said he’ll launch the effort during this upcoming legislative session, which runs from February to May.

The bill is about “how you define community, and how you define responsibility in community,” he said.

Several Maryland municipalities already allow non-citizen voting, including Takoma Park, which granted illegal immigrants the right to vote in 1992. Chicago allows non-citizens to vote in school board elections. The proposal has failed in some other communities, such as San Francisco and Portland, Maine.

DeStefano proposed allowing all New Haven residents the right to vote, as long as they provide identification and proof of residency. That’s the same basis by which he offered the immigrant-friendly municipal ID card in 2007. (Currently, only U.S. citizens can vote in elections.)

DeStefano estimated that New Haven has 10,000 non-citizen immigrants, maybe half of them above the age of 18.

The mayor’s quest to make New Haven more inclusive of its immigrant community launched him into the national spotlight in 2007. He also had the police department issue a general order preventing officers from inquiring into people’s immigration status. His latest voting effort is likely to do the same.

DeStefano said the idea found favor this week in Westville, where he ran into an English couple living here on green cards without the right to vote in the States.

“You are the ones who argued about taxation without representation,” the couple said to him, he recalled. It’s only fair that all taxpayers have the right to vote, they argued. DeStefano said his bill would help not just undocumented immigrants, but those who might be here legally but don’t have the right to vote.

DeStefano will need the support of legislators in order to make any headway at the Capitol. He was asked if New Haven’s state delegation is supporting his effort.

“We’ve got some education to do on this,” he replied.

DeStefano will need a committee to introduce the bill, the practice in “short session” years at the legislature.

He found some first-blush support with state Rep. Juan Candelaria of New Haven.

“I agree with him that anyone who resides in the city of New Haven should have the ability to vote,” Candelaria said. “I don’t know about the legalities, but if you work in the state, your kids attend local schools and you’ve been a resident for a fair amount of time, that would make sense.”

Candelaria predicted that “it’s not going to be easy” to pass a non-citizen voting bill. The legislature “had a hard time” passing even the DREAM act, which granted in-state tuition rates to children of undocumented immigrants.

New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar declined comment on the proposal, saying he had just learned about it.

Nationally, a movement to grant non-citizen immigrants local voting rights has sprung up in “close to two dozen states,” according to Michele Wucker, president of the World Policy Institute and author of Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right.

“The idea is that when you live in a city, you are essentially a citizen of that city, which is separate form federal or national citizenship,” Wucker said Tuesday. “The logic is that everybody is better off when everyone on their block and in their town has a stake in staying on top of issues and working together and to get safe and clean streets, good schools, reliable transportation, and good health care.

“The other part of the argument is that from the beginning of U.S. history until the 1920s, non-citizen voting was very common, at one point in 44 states and territories, at various levels. The movement now is for local elections. In most cases, with the exceptions of school boards, it’s for people who have their papers, who are legal. This is not illegal immigrants voting for president.”

Campaigns for local voting rights usually include all immigrants here legally when it comes to municipal elections (like for mayor), and include undocumented immigrants when it comes to school board elections, Wucker said.

A state delegate last week challenged Takoma Park’s non-U.S. citizen voting law, 20 years after the city enacted the policy that allows all noncitizens who live in Takoma Park to vote in city elections.

Del. Patrick L. McDonough (R-Baltimore County) of Middle River targeted Takoma Park after proposing legislation that would prohibit noncitizens from voting in municipal elections anywhere in the state. Five other municipalities, all in Montgomery County — Barnesville, Garrett Park, Glen Echo, Martin’s Additions and Somerset — allow noncitizens to vote, according to the Maryland Municipal League.

“If Osama bin Laden was alive today and he moved to Takoma Park, he could register to vote and hold office,” said McDonough, known for his opposition to illegal immigration. “That’s how ridiculous the system is.”

But Takoma Park Mayor Bruce Williams and others with key roles in the creation of the law, enacted on March 31, 1992, said it makes sense for people who have green cards, those who are working toward U.S. citizenship or in the country for diplomatic purposes, to be allowed to participate in local politics.

The city strongly opposed McDonough’s bill in written testimony to the Ways and Means Committee, which had a hearing on Dec. 7.

McDonough told the committee he doesn’t think legal immigrants should be allowed to vote, either. He said municipal election law should be consistent with federal and state regulations.

“A foreigner might have a different foreign policy interest, but when you are talking about choosing a mayor or a city council member, your interests are equal to your neighbor,” said George L. Leventhal (D-At Large), a Montgomery County Council member from Takoma Park who co-chaired the Share the Vote campaign in 1991 with state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery). “If you own a home, if you want your garbage picked up or your street paved, that really doesn’t address the issue of national citizenship.”

The Share the Vote campaign pressed Takoma Park citizens to vote yes on a nonbinding referendum on the proposal.

Raskin, a law professor at American University, began researching the history and constitutionality of noncitizen suffrage in 1990, when he, Leventhal and other members of the Takoma Park redistricting task force found there were almost double the amount of eligible voters in some of the city’s wards compared with its Ward 5, which has a significant immigrant population.

Many states allowed white, male property owners from other countries to vote until the early 1900s, when anti-immigration policies led to a steady decline in immigrant suffrage, Raskin wrote in a paper on the subject. The Maryland constitution requires U.S. citizenship to vote in state elections, but that qualification is not applicable to municipalities other than Baltimore city, according to the Legislative Services report issued last week to the General Assembly.

In November 1991, the referendum passed by 92 votes in Takoma Park. The City Council voted in favor of the resolution in February 1992.

“The basic rationale for it was that lawful noncitizens were en route to becoming citizens, and we wanted to incorporate them in the community,” Raskin said.

A bill similar to McDonough’s proposal received an unfavorable report in the State House committee in March 1992, and Takoma Park has allowed noncitizens to vote ever since. The Ways and Means Committee had not voted on McDonough’s bill as of Monday. McDonough said he expects it will fail but that he is contemplating challenging the law in court.

“Our feeling was that we were legal resident aliens. We paid taxes like everyone else, but we had no voice in anything that went on,” said Anne Norman, who in 1971 moved to Takoma Park from the United Kingdom with her husband. Both lobbied for the law in 1991. They became U.S. citizens two years ago.

“We were effectively disenfranchised,” Norman said. “If the citizens of a particular community have come together and agreed that it’s a good idea, it should be up to that particular community.”

In the 2009 Takoma Park election, the most recent noncitizen voting data available shows 32 of 436 registered non-U.S. citizens voted. There were 433 registered non-U.S. citizens for the 2011 election, in which 1,914 people voted.

“What it certainly has not done is what the xenophobes said it would do, which is to turn Takoma Park into some kind of haven for illegal immigrants,” Leventhal said. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s made any change whatsoever.”

Still, Williams said it’s important Takoma Park preserve the policy.

“We don’t need the state telling us how to run local elections,” Williams said. “This makes it so that all of our residents can participate. They live here. We want them to participate in their community.”

Wednesday, April 18,
12:15-1:30 pm, Presidents Conference Room, No. 2, located on the 5th floor of the Rosenthal Library at Queens College. Luncheon Session. Democracy for All?: The History and Revival of Immigrant Voting Rights.NYC Councilman Daniel Dromm and Dennis Redmond, from the Queens Community House, will be participating at this session led by Professor Ron Hayduk from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. Sponsored by the QC Immigration Studies Working Group, the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding, the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, and the Division of Social Sciences at Queens College, CUNY.

6:30 PM. Rosenthal Library, Room 230, QC. Dreams, Realities, and Future Scenarios: An Open Discussion About Immigration Policy at the Local, State, and Federal Level. Confirmed and Expected Speakers: U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, NY Assembly member Guillermo Linares, NYC Councilman Daniel Dromm, and Thomas J. Shea from the New York Immigration Coalition. Moderator: Ron Hayduk from the Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY. Co-Sponsored by the Center for Ethnic, Racial and Religious Understanding, the Office of the Provost, the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the QC Immigration Studies Working Group, the QC Division of Social Sciences, and the non-profit Immigration Advocacy Matters.

For more information and a full schedule, click here

More information concerning the Forum
Making Worlds: An OWS Forum on the Commons
February 16-18, 2012
Church of the Ascension, 122 Java Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

http://makingworlds.wikispaces.com/Workshops – Facebook Event

For most of Harka Khadka’s 36 years, political empowerment has meant the right to speak his own language, practice his own religion and live in his own country. These days, Khadka simply wants a say in how Burlington cleans its streets, provides electricity and runs its schools. Read more…

BRIDGEPORT — New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. caused a stir last week when he said he would like to extend the right to vote to every New Haven resident — including undocumented immigrants.

This year, two-thirds of state legislatures have introduced laws that undermine the right to vote. Early voting and Sunday voting are under attack, photo ID requirements will introduce the first financial and document barrier to voting since the poll tax, and racially-motivated bans on ex-felons will wipe tens of thousands off the rolls.

There is one campaign here in New York City that is going on the offensive to expand voting rights rather than just defending the rights we already have. The New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights is an active and growing coalition of unions, faith-based groups, community organizations and activists who are working to restore municipal voting rights for 1.3 million non-citizens.

Today, one in every five residents of New York City is not a U.S. citizens and is therefore left out of the basic decisions that impact all of our neighborhoods and families. Don’t you want all of your neighbors to be able to join in the fight for good schools, quality pubic hospitals and fair policing? Since immigrants pay more than 18.2 billion in New York State income taxes every year, including the same income taxes as citizens, this is a classic case of taxation without representation.

Join the Coalition on Saturday
9:30 AM GATHER IN QUEENS – Signs Making + Coffee
@ Immigrant Movement International, 108-59 Roosevelt Avenue. Train 7 at 111th St.
and we will go together for:
11:00 AM assemble 61st St. and Madison Ave., the Koch brothers’ NYC office.
11:30 AM March from 61st St. and Madison Ave. to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th St. and 2nd Ave.
12:30 PM Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations.
The coalition will have a table until 3 PM

For additional details about the December 10 rally, please visit our Stand For Freedom site