Staff Reports
Los Angeles just got a new experiment. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez and Councilmember Ysabel Jurado filed a draft proposal to ask voters this November whether the City Council should be allowed to let noncitizens vote in some local elections. That’s right — the council would first ask permission to give voting power to people who are not U.S. citizens. It’s being sold as inclusion. It looks more like a power grab dressed up as compassion.
What the proposal would actually do
The draft is set up as a charter referral. If the council puts the question on the November ballot and voters approve it, the council would gain the authority to change local election rules to include noncitizen voters for things like mayor, City Council seats, and the Los Angeles Board of Education. But it is not automatic. The measure still needs to clear a rules committee, get a full council vote to reach the ballot, pass in November, and then survive new implementing ordinances. Translation: a few more LA City Council votes and a whole lot of legal work stand between this proposal and reality.
What supporters say — and why they mean it
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez frames this as giving a voice to long-term residents who pay taxes and raise kids here but can’t vote. He points to immigrant families who he says have been shut out of city decisions. That is a clear pitch to the big noncitizen population in Los Angeles County, which advocates say numbers in the hundreds of thousands to over a million depending on how you count. It’s an emotional argument, and in a city that lives on identity politics, emotion often wins.
Legal and practical roadblocks
But this idea runs into real legal limits. Federal law bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections, and the line between local and federal ballots can get messy under 18 U.S.C. § 611. Courts have already tossed similar laws — New York’s noncitizen voting law was struck down by its high court. Voters in Santa Ana also rejected a noncitizen-vote measure last year. Beyond court fights, practical problems loom: how do you keep a separate local voter list? Who qualifies as a noncitizen voter — lawful permanent residents, visa holders, undocumented people? Those are not hypothetical questions. They lead to litigation, administrative chaos, and political backlash.
Why Angelenos should pay attention
This is not just a policy debate about who gets a say in school board decisions. It’s about what citizenship means and who controls power in Los Angeles. The DSA-aligned council faction pushing this sees votes as a way to expand its base. Opponents see a political ploy that could weaken the meaning of citizenship and invite costly legal fights. Voters will have to choose whether they want to rewrite long-standing rules about who gets to shape their city — or whether they prefer to keep citizenship as the gatekeeper for the franchise. Either way, Los Angeles should expect a loud fight, lots of court filings, and more political theater before the gavel falls.
