On September 19, the Santa Ana City Council will consider whether to allow non-citizen residents – both legal residents and those who are living in the country illegally – to vote in city elections.
Two members of the council’s progressive-Left bloc, Councilmembers Johnathan Hernandez and Benjamin Vasquez, are proposed a charter amendment that would allow non-citizen voting.
In July of 2022, the council stopped just short of become the first California city to allow non-citizens to vote in city council and mayoral elections.
Santa Ana Council Poised To Put Measure Allowing Non-Citizens To Vote On November Ballot
The council at the time supported moving forward with placing a charter measure on the ballot. It was supported by then-Mayor Vince Sarmiento, Hernandez and Councilmembers Jessie Lopez, Thai Phan, and Nelida Mendoza. Opposed were Councilmembers Phil Bacerra and David Penaloza.
At the time, Hernandez said he got the idea from Idalia Rios, who called into the council meeting. Rios is a progressive political activist and organizer with the Residents United Network, a progressive advocacy group that reported revenues of nearly $1.8 million in 2020. Rios has advocated for rent and mortgage cancellations.
However, the push was frozen after a superior court ruling that a 2016 San Francisco allowing non-citizens to vote in school board elections was contrary to the state constitution.
Last month, according to the staff report, the state’s First District Court of Appeal overturned that ruling. Now, Hernandez and Vazquez want to move forward with the proposal.
Hernandez and Vazquez argue that many states non-citizens were allowed to vote during the first and second phases of “alien suffrage” between 1776 and 1926. However, the history isn’t quite so simple. And an appeal to history might also note that for much of that time, slavery was legal. And for nearly all that time, woman – citizen or non-citizen – weren’t allowed to vote, and African-American suffrage was actively suppressed.
Hernandez and Vazquez also argue their case on the basis of Santa Ana having a high percentage of illegal immigrant residents, on the fact that they pay taxes and are subject to local laws.
Political scholar Ryan Williams, president of the conservative Claremont Institute, argues against extending the right to vote in an American election to people who are not Americans. Williams maintains it is contrary to country’s founding principles of equality before the law and consent of the governed.
“One of the most fundamental aspects of modern politics is the distinction between citizens and non-citizens,” said Williams. “The moral core of citizenship is mutual consent derived from natural human equality of rights. None of us are born to rule one another without consent. Allowing illegal aliens that we have not formally admitted to enter the political community to vote is a violation of the most sacred principle of American justice.”
