Key findings
- Non-citizens voted in many U.S. local elections until states removed the right, a process complete by 1926 and driven largely by reaction to immigrant voting blocs.
- Takoma Park, Maryland, and New York City offer models; both first took steps to protect immigrants before extending voting rights.
- In Buffalo, tracts with larger non-citizen shares of the voting-age population also tended to have slightly lower turnout in the 2021 municipal election.
Who may vote has always been a policy choice. This issue traces how non-citizen voting rose and fell in the United States, reviews recent efforts to restore it, and applies the lessons to Buffalo using tract-level Census and election data.
It concludes that restoring resident voting rights in Buffalo is feasible, and that, as in Takoma Park and New York City, protections for immigrant residents may need to come first.
Related
- Buffalo Resident Voting Rights Data Portal · Companion data tool
- With federal inaction on voting rights, strengthening democracy can start in cities · Op-ed, January 2022
Cite this issue
Weaver, Russell. 2021. “Back to the Future of Local Elections.” High Road Policy 2(4). Buffalo, NY: Cornell University ILR School, Buffalo Co-Lab. https://hdl.handle.net/1813/110736.