Council passes non-citizen voting step

Needs support of Wu, State House

The City Council on Wednesday took a step toward making elections more inclusive by approving a measure that would allow immigrants legally living in Boston to vote in local elections.

But the home rule petition, which must be approved by the state Legislature to take effect, still has a long way to go before it becomes reality.

The initiative seeks to allow immigrants who are not US citizens but live and pay taxes in Boston to participate in municipal elections. The sponsors say that immigrants with legal status constitute more than a quarter of Boston’s population and pay on average $2.3 billion in taxes annually.

“Voting is an inherent right that this country was founded on,” said Councilor Kendra Lara during Wednesday’s meeting.

Councilor Gabriela “Gigi” Coletta voted in favor of the measure, while acknowledging there were concerns about the proposal and that, as a home rule petition that needs State House approval, it would likely die on Beacon Hill, as have similar measures. Also, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu must sign off on it before it is sent to the Legislature.

“This docket is certainly a starting point, there’s no doubt about it,” she said.

Councilor Julia Mejia noted that a sizable chunk of Boston’s population is boxed out from participating in local elections.

“I want to make sure we are affirming all of us here in the city of Boston,” she said.

Councilor Michael Flaherty said officials need to be mindful of legal concerns regarding noncitizens voting. Allowing such individuals to vote in local elections could lead to confusion and unintended consequences, including noncitizens mistakenly registering to vote or vote in federal or state elections, which could jeopardize their opportunity to become a citizen.

“For me, that’s too great of a risk to take at this point,” said Flaherty, who voted against it.

After city election officials earlier in the week pointed out that the Massachusetts definition of voters is contingent on citizenship, the home rule petition that passed Wednesday included some language tweaks, including referring to the individuals whom the council is trying to enfranchise as “legal voting age residents,” Councilor Ricardo Arroyo told councilors. Additionally, the latest draft of the proposal would allow state lawmakers to edit wording in the proposal, said Arroyo.

Federal law does not allow noncitizens to vote in elections for president and Congress but does not prevent states or local communities from granting that right.

Wednesday’s 8-4 vote featured the moderate to conservative bloc of Councilors Flaherty, Ed Flynn, Frank Baker, and Erin Murphy voting against the proposal. It now heads to the mayor’s desk for approval. A mayoral spokesperson said Wednesday Wu’s office would review the measure.

There is currently legislation on Beacon Hill that would extend voting rights in municipal electors to noncitizen voters throughout Massachusetts.

At a council working session earlier in the week, Lara forecasted pushback from the Legislature regardless of how legally sound the petition is, saying that “the general sentiment about immigrants in this country” is likely to be grounds for legal challenge.

“We want to make sure that it’s legally sound, but it doesn’t mean it’s not legally sound if we receive a legal challenge,” Lara said. “Our office is going to work on making sure we can get this done.”