New York state court blocks law allowing non-citizens to vote in NYC elections

The New York State Supreme Court has struck down a Democratic law that sought to enfranchise non-citizens in the city's municipal elections. The regulation, which would have added approximately 800,000 voters to any local election, including the mayoral election, was declared unconstitutional.

A ruling with broad judicial support

With six votes to one, the Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the New York State Constitution reserves the right to vote exclusively for citizens. “Whatever the future holds, the New York Constitution, in its current form, clearly states that only citizens may vote,” Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote in the majority opinion.

Judge Jenny Rivera was the lone dissenter, arguing that Article IX of the state Constitution gives localities the authority to define their own election rules. In her opinion, the prohibition of voting by non-citizens is not explicitly stated, so municipalities should have the power to grant them this right in local matters.

A contested legal process

The annulment of the law puts an end to a court battle of more than three years. The regulation was passed in the final days of the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, the predecessor of Eric Adams, also a Democrat. Neither de Blasio nor Adams vetoed it, so it automatically became law in early 2022. However, after legal challenges, this law was never implemented or enforced.

In 2022, a state Supreme Court judge in Staten Island ruled against the law, a decision that an appeals court upheld last year. The City Council appealed again, but Thursday's ruling definitively closes the case.

“For what should be the final time, common sense has prevailed,” said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella. “From day one we maintained that the plain language of the New York State Constitution does not extend the right to vote to noncitizens. We are thankful the Court of Appeals saw it the same way, and by a significant margin.”

Reactions and national context

The ruling was celebrated by Republican leaders, who considered it a victory for electoral integrity. “Efforts by radical Democrats in the New York City Council to allow non-citizens to vote have been rightly rejected,” said Ed Cox, president of the NYGOP, in a statement picked up by AP.

For his part, the Republicans' lawyer, Michael Hawrylchak, said they were pleased that the court recognized the state constitution's “fundamental limits” on voter eligibility.

New York is not the only jurisdiction that has attempted to enfranchise non-citizens. Other cities, such as Washington, D.C., and Burlington, Vermont, have passed similar measures in recent years. However, Republican opposition to these initiatives has been forceful, with President Donald Trump and other conservative leaders pushing legislation to expressly ban foreign voting in different parts of the country.

With this decision, the Court of Appeals puts an end to the attempt to expand suffrage to non-citizens in New York, reaffirming the limits set forth in the state Constitution.