Which U.S. cities currently allow noncitizen residents to vote in local elections and under what conditions?
Executive summary
A small but growing set of U.S. municipalities and the District of Columbia permit noncitizen residents to vote in certain local elections, typically with narrow limits — for example, only in school board races or only if the resident is a parent or guardian — while federal and statewide contests remain closed to noncitizens [1] [2] [3]. These local rules differ widely by place and are subject to state constitutions, home‑rule provisions, and court challenges that have both expanded and restrained noncitizen suffrage [4] [5].
1. The places that currently allow noncitizen local voting and what they allow
Washington, D.C., enacted a law in 2023 allowing noncitizen residents to vote in nonfederal elections — meaning local offices and referendums — though they still cannot vote in federal contests like president or U.S. House delegate races [6] [1]. In California, San Francisco permits noncitizen parents and guardians of city schoolchildren to register and vote in Board of Education elections, operating through a dedicated noncitizen registration process and separate ballots [6] [7] [1]. Takoma Park, Maryland, explicitly allows residents who are not U.S. citizens to vote in municipal elections for mayor and city council, relying on Maryland’s municipal home‑rule language that some towns have used to expand local suffrage [4] [8]. In Vermont and Maryland a patchwork of small municipalities have adopted noncitizen voting for local offices; for example, Burlington and Montpelier in Vermont and roughly a dozen to two dozen towns in Maryland have charter amendments or ordinances extending some municipal voting rights to noncitizen residents [4] [9] [10].
2. How jurisdictions limit who can vote — residency, parental status, and immigration status
Local laws commonly restrict eligibility by type of election (most often school board or municipal office), by relationship to the school system (San Francisco’s parent/guardian rule), or by immigration classification (some cities limit participation to lawful permanent residents) rather than to every noncitizen irrespective of status, producing a mosaic of narrowly tailored permissions rather than a blanket franchise [7] [9] [8]. Jurisdictions that allow noncitizen voting typically require a bespoke registration process to prevent noncitizen ballots from being cast in state or federal contests, including separate registration forms and separate ballots for municipal contests [1].
3. Legal and political constraints shaping where noncitizen voting can exist
State constitutions and state legislatures are decisive: some states explicitly prohibit noncitizen local voting or have amended constitutions to restrict suffrage to citizens, which can preempt municipal experiments, while other states’ home‑rule provisions have been interpreted to permit cities to expand local voting rights [4] [5] [10]. The New York City example — a municipal noncitizen voting law struck down by state court — illustrates how state constitutional language can nullify local initiatives, even as other states (and D.C.) have allowed different approaches to proceed [5] [10].
4. Safeguards, controversies, and the factual scale of noncitizen participation
Election officials and researchers report that noncitizen voting in practice is rare and that jurisdictions use verification steps to keep noncitizen ballots confined to eligible local contests, including separate registration portals and verification tools, though federal tools used to audit rolls have occasionally produced controversial or imprecise flags [1] [11] [2]. Political controversies have followed: opponents warn of slippery slopes and have pushed state bans or constitutional amendments, while proponents argue that municipal noncitizen voting strengthens local representation for people affected by city services [12] [8] [9].
5. What this means for someone trying to map the landscape today
The landscape is dynamic and heavily localized: a reliable list requires checking municipal charters and recent court rulings because towns in Maryland, Vermont, California, and D.C. lead current practice but other proposals have been adopted, modified, or struck down over the past several years [4] [9] [5]. Federal law continues to bar noncitizens from federal elections, and most states require attestation of U.S. citizenship on voter registration forms, so noncitizen voting remains an exception narrowly baked into local systems rather than a general right [3] [2].