Last year Utah senator Orrin Hatch introduced a bill to amend the U.S. Constitution to allow those who have been naturalized citizens for at least 20 years to be eligible to become president; a similar bill was introduced in the House. The election last year of Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-born naturalized citizen, as governor of California has drawn attention to this question.

In San Francisco, a proposal to extend the vote to noncitizens in school board elections will be voted on in November. It has sparked a debate among capitalist politicians. San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez supports the proposal. Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein has sharply opposed it, saying, “Allowing non-citizens to vote is not only unconstitutional in California, it clearly dilutes the promise of citizenship.” Nearly 9 million of the 35 million residents of California are foreign-born.

The bill in Washington, D.C., introduced July 13 by five city council members, would require only that a person be a permanent resident. In promoting the bill, the council members pointed to the growing number of immigrants in the city. According to the 2000 Census, the Latino population here has increased by 37 percent in a decade.

Rep. Thomas Davis, chairman of the House oversight committee on the District of Columbia, and Rep. Thomas Tancredo have said Congress, which has the authority to overrule legislation in this city, will not allow the bill to become law if passed.

In several cities, from Chicago to Tacoma Park, Maryland, noncitizens can vote in municipal or school elections. In New York City they were eligible to vote in school board races and serve on the board until two years ago. Proposals to allow legal residents to vote for local offices are being debated in Connecticut, New York, and other areas.

A number of individuals born abroad hold government office, such as Canadian-born Jennifer Granholm, Democratic governor of Michigan; Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, born in Taiwan; and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Melquiades Martínez, born in Cuba. Former secretaries of state Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger were born in Czechoslovakia and Germany, respectively.Until the 1920s, 22 states and territories allowed legal residents to vote in local elections. With the government’s antilabor, anti-immigrant campaign following World War I, voting rights at every level were restricted to citizens.  
 
 
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