As Marylanders took to the polls Tuesday for local elections, voters in the liberal communities of Greenbelt and Rockville drew different conclusions about whether noncitizens also should be allowed to vote.
“We view municipalities as these laboratories of democracy. They’re able to implement a lot of the reforms that we’re working on at a state level,”
— Joanne Antoine, executive director of Common Cause Maryland.
Greenbelt endorsed letting noncitizens vote in municipal elections, but Rockville rejected the plan.
(From the November 8, 2023 Washington Post, “Noncitizen voting campaigns elicit different results in liberal Md. suburbs”)
Should local officials in Greenbelt take voters’ wishes to heart, legislation will be enacted to make the city of roughly 25,000 people the 12th municipality in Maryland to extend voting rights in local elections to all residents regardless of citizenship status — the largest concentration of any state — making the city part of a small, long-standing push to expand access. The District of Columbia joined in last year, but the city faces a federal lawsuit alleging that the enabling legislation “dilutes” the votes of citizens. At least seven states, including Ohio and Florida, have banned the practice.
In neighboring Montgomery County, where other cities allow noncitizens to vote, 64 percent of Rockville voters rejected the idea, according to preliminary results. Voters also rejected extending ballot access to 16- and 17-year-olds and creating new districts, but they did endorse term limits. Rockville voters also elected a slate of new city leaders and a new mayor, as did neighboring Gaithersburg.
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