I was shocked to read in Mona Charen’s column “Are Democrats trying to lose elections?” (Jan. 16, TribLIVE) that mayors in the United States apparently have the power to allow noncitizens to vote in elections in their cities and towns. Charen noted that New York City’s new mayor, Eric Adams, “declined to veto a New York City law that permits noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.” The law allows green-card holders and “those with valid work visas and ‘Dreamers’ who have lived in the city for at least 30 days” to vote. This has created a whole lot of additional voters. Good grief! Since when did that become legal?
And, on the same day’s editorial page, almost as if to quietly invite attention to these newly created voting rights, three Hispanic members of the state Legislature wrote in an op-ed that they want to be sure that redistricting includes packing Hispanic voters into districts (“Redistricting plan will improve Latino representation,” Jan. 16, TribLIVE). Would this include unregistered noncitizen, Hispanic visitors, too?
What, in the name of all who have died to preserve our right as American citizens to vote for our legal representatives, is going on here?
Ed Collins
West Newton