Posted on 02/11/2010 5:07:39 AM PST by como_1996
Non-U.S. Citizens Voting in Portland - Public Hearing Thursday
It is considered one of the most fulfilling duties of a U-S citizen ... the right to vote. In Portland that right could be passed on to those who are not U-S citizens.
Portland's Charter Commission will hold a public hearing Thursday on whether to extend voting rights to legal, non-citizens in municipal elections.
The Charter Commission is expected to vote on the proposal February 24th.
They call ‘em Mainiacs for a reason....
Pretty much sums up the stupidity of the local government...
Are they NUTS ?
If these people want to take part in the making of the laws that they live under, i.e. voting for legislatures, executives, and judges, then they should become citizens.
Otherwise, they can just live under them and complain. Rights carry responsibiltities.
How does something like this even come up for consideration?
Portland would need a serious ass-kicking if they allow this.
By extension, wouldn’t it be discriminatory to allow the vote only to non-citizens who happen to be within a geographic area ? By extension, if you allow non-citizens “here” to vote, you must extend the same “rights” to non-citizens who are “not here” (i.e., all people of the world).
Caveats: But only LEGAL RESIDENTS, with gobs of paperwork and photo ID etc. required when voting, and only for long-term residents of Japan who have both Permanent Residence status (kind of similiar to a green card) and are Japanese taxpayers in the local Japanese tax system, but they can only vote in muncipal elections. It will not be allowed for prefectural or national level elections. The theory is, if they pay taxes and are legal, they should at least have some voice in local elections.
If this occurs then the next step will be to allow foreigners to run for election.
Wouldn't the same theory say that if you don't own property and don't pay taxes (regardless of citizenship) then you should NOT be able to have a voice in local elections that involve increasing and/or spending property taxes?
IIRC, this is already the case in NYC school board elections.
One cannot legally deny a native-born American citizen (or a naturalized US citizen) whether they own property or not, or whether they pay taxes or don't pay taxes or not , the right to vote if they are over 18 and legally sane and not a felon disenfranchised of their voting rights. We may or may not like that, but that is the law for now.
Yuo missed the point , He was making the point if you accept the premise then you go down a slippery slope.
Yuo+You
This dilutes and weakens the votes of American citizens. I would be asking why Portland’s Charter Commission would want to do something like that. Then I would be asking how to remove the Charter Commission members behind this idea.
Probably not in Japan. But probably in the USA knowing what their agenda is.
Well Maine and vermont are the only states that let prison inmates vote.
Nothing to see here, just move along.
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