Boston Weighs Granting Non-US Citizens Voting Rights

Boston officials may grant non-U.S. residents the right to vote in municipal elections, ABC affiliate WCVB reports.

The City Council Committee on Government Operations will meet Tuesday at the request of Council President Andrea Campbell to discuss allowing immigrants with legal status, including permanent residents, visa holders and people with Temporary Protected Status or who have enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, to vote in municipal races.

According to a survey taken in 2015 by the U.S. Census Bureau, Boston immigrants account for 28.5 percent of the city’s population, about 190,000. They paid about $116 million in state and local taxes in 2015 and spent about $3.4 billion, according to a "Boston by the Numbers" report from that year.

"The purpose of our local government, including the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Advancement, is to 'strengthen the ability of diverse, cultural, and linguistic communities to play an active role in the economic, civic, social and cultural life of the City of Boston,'" reads an order requested by Campbell in January of this year.

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