“I have not heard, from within the city, opposition to our law. I hear about it from time to time from (people) outside the city but not from here,”

— Jessie Carpenter, Takoma Park city clerk

(from the October 22, 2024 Poynter article, “A Maryland city has let noncitizens vote in local elections for 30 years. How has it worked so far?”)

Takoma Park has allowed noncitizens —  including lawful U.S. residents and immigrants in the country illegally — to vote in local elections since 1993.

A city of about 17,000 people that borders Washington, D.C., on its western and southern sides, Takoma Park is liberal-leaning and declared itself a sanctuary city for migrants in 1985. It was one of the first U.S. cities to allow residents who are not U.S. citizens to vote in municipal elections. The city also extended municipal voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in 2013.

Read the entire article here.