In the days leading up to last week’s election, billboards posted around Santa Ana showed the community divided over whether non-citizens should be allowed to vote in local elections.
A lawn sign reads “Strengthen Democracy” in English and Spanish and supports Measure DD.
Opposition banners were hung on fences across the city, reading: “Defend the rights of citizens.”
Juan Molina, who voted at the Orange County Registrar of Voters, said he has no prejudice against illegal aliens, but believes the right to vote should be reserved for citizens.
“It has to be a U.S. citizen. We all go through the process of becoming a U.S. citizen,” Molina, 61, said.
In the end, that view won out, with 60 percent of voters rejecting Southern California’s first bill giving noncitizens the right to vote.
Santa Ana, which had more votes for Vice President Kamala Harris than President-elect Donald Trump, is a predominantly Latino community of about 310,000 people. But experts say the vote against Measure DD could signal that voters, especially Latino voters, are changing their attitudes toward immigration.
“This is a trend consistent with what we’ve seen both in polls and elections, where the Latino community is becoming more conservative on immigration issues,” said John Gould, dean of the Department of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. ” he said.
It may also reflect how naturalized voters view citizenship, a legal status that can take years and be expensive to obtain.
“Across the country, there’s a growing sense that civil rights matter. This is a process that should be respected,” said Mike Madrid, a Republican political consultant who is familiar with Latino voting trends.
Measure DD was also placed on the ballot during a campaign filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric, as Republicans accused the Biden-Harris administration of illegal border crossings. Trump and other Republicans continue to falsely claim that noncitizens illegally vote in federal elections to skew the results in favor of Democrats, despite laws and decades of research disputing claims of voter fraud. disseminated information.
Republicans introduced a bill in Congress this year that would require states to obtain proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. It was unsuccessful, but several Republican-controlled states took similar action on winning ballots. Voters last week approved measures in Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin that explicitly ban noncitizens from voting in state and local elections. .
Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in presidential elections, and those who vote fraudulently can be jailed or deported.
However, federal law allows each state to set its own local and statewide election rules, which could include allowing noncitizens to vote in limited local elections, such as school board and city council elections. There is sex. The two Northern California cities are also among several across the country that already allow non-citizens to vote in some local elections.
In 2016, the city of San Francisco passed Proposition N, which allows noncitizens with children under 18 to vote in school board elections. Proposition N passed after two other similar bills failed in 2004 and 2010.
The city of Oakland also approved a measure to allow noncitizens to vote in school board elections in 2022, but the law has not yet been enacted.
Both bills faced legal challenges from conservative legal groups, but last August the First District Court of Appeals ruled that the laws did not violate the California Constitution. The struggle was called off.
Measure DD would amend the Santa Ana City Charter to allow noncitizens to vote by the November 2028 at-large city election for City Council positions.
The measure faced fierce opposition from local officials and conservative groups such as the Institute for Policy Studies, which argued it would be costly, litigious and undermine citizens’ rights.
Immigrant rights activist Carlos Perea, who supported the measure, said these groups had “hit the panic button.” Perea added that the results reflect Trump’s influence during a year in which the former president campaigned extensively against illegal immigration.
“This was due to the rise of anti-immigrant, xenophobic and fascist rhetoric within the country,” said Perea, executive director of the Harbor Institute for Immigration and Economic Justice.
Supporters of the bill define noncitizens as illegal aliens and green card holders and say it will allow for fairer elections, evoking the centuries-old slogan “no taxation without representation.” I set it.
Perea said she was proud of the work she and other activists, including Latino and Vietnamese advocacy groups, did together to get the bill on the ballot. He cited San Francisco’s Prop N as an example and said he would continue to push for passage of the bill in future elections.
“We are ready to reintroduce this in the near future,” Perea said.
