Noncitizen City College students may get vote in school elections
City College of San Francisco students who are not citizens may soon be able to vote in elections for the school’s Board of Trustees, spokespersons for the college said Friday.
The school’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved a resolution allowing noncitizens to vote in board elections, but to take effect the measure would have to be passed by majority vote through a citywide ballot measure, university officials said.
The policy was first proposed by San Francisco City College Board President Alan Wong, after California’s 1st District Court of Appeal determined that the California Constitution does not restrict the authority of state and local governments to expand voting rights.
The political conversation intensified in August after the appellate court court overruled a San Francisco Superior Court Judge who said a San Francisco ballot measure allowing noncitizen parents to vote in San Francisco Unified school board elections violated the state Constitution.
Those noncitizen parents in San Francisco were the first non-U.S. citizens to vote legally in California.
Wong said that allowing noncitizen students the opportunity to vote for their board would get more students invested in their education and increase participation and involvement on campus.
“Many students at City College are newly arrived immigrants seeking skills and opportunity in a new country, and encouraging them to participate in our democracy adds a new dimension to their education,” said Wong.
Under the proposed policy, noncitizen City College students would still need to satisfy other voting qualifications, such as being a resident of San Francisco of voting age.
Officials estimate that a third of all City College students were born in a country other than the United States, and that thousands of students would be eligible under the proposed policy.
“Noncitizen students attend classes, join clubs, eat in the cafeteria and have as huge of a stake in local school governance as everybody else,” said Joshua Ochoa, a youth empowerment organizer. “Noncitizen students now have a chance to get a vote for their leadership.”