The initiative to allow non-U.S. citizens to vote in Los Angeles city elections has been postponed and will not be on the November ballot. The City Council unanimously decided that the proposal required further development.
On Tuesday, the City Council voted 14-0 to return two charter amendments to committee merely 13 days after they had been advanced. This decision was influenced by growing legal, privacy, and election administration concerns, which hindered the measures from appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The proposed amendments aimed to revise the Los Angeles City Charter to empower future City Councils to broaden voting eligibility for city and Los Angeles Unified School District elections.
A recent report from the City Attorney’s Office highlighted concerns that the amendments would leave significant decisions to future City Councils.
The report also raised doubts about whether a provision restricting when future councils could alter these ordinances could be legally enforced, allowing future politicians to potentially modify major election rules by ordinance instead of a public vote.
Councilman John Lee, the council’s sole Independent, advocated for withdrawing the measure, stating that sufficient groundwork had not been conducted.
“We have not meaningfully examined the legal, fiscal, administrative, or privacy implications of this proposal,” Lee stated.
He referenced San Francisco, the only California city allowing limited noncitizen voting, noting that the city’s voter registration materials caution that personal data may be accessed by federal immigration authorities and advise applicants to seek legal counsel before registering.
He further argued that deferring substantial election rules, like voter eligibility and vote-counting procedures, to future councils could undermine public confidence.
Councilwoman Traci Park, who earlier supported the proposal to review the final ballot text, expressed that the City Attorney’s draft left her with lingering questions.
“My concern here is that if this goes to the ballot, the voters won’t really know what they’re voting for, because we don’t really know, either,” Park remarked.
She questioned how Los Angeles would safeguard immigrants’ personal information from federal immigration enforcement and whether Los Angeles County could manage a separate election system, noting that county election officials had not been consulted.
“We haven’t even talked to L.A. County about whether they can do this,” Park said. “Nor do we have any legal advice from our own attorneys about how a system would be administered.”
Park also highlighted the experiences of other cities with noncitizen voting, noting San Francisco’s lengthy process to develop its program before voter approval, and cited failed efforts in other locations.
She pointed out that a similar proposal in Santa Ana was abandoned over legal and implementation issues, and mentioned Oakland and Washington, D.C., where noncitizen voting measures faced extensive scrutiny and legal challenges.
Councilman Hugo Soto-MartĂnez, the proposal’s author, defended the initiative, dismissing fear-based criticisms surrounding immigrant communities.
He noted that over a million undocumented immigrants in the area contribute to society despite the fear of deportation, advocating that extending voting rights is “the right thing to do.”
However, Soto-MartĂnez conceded that more work was necessary, following concerns from various community groups, including Los Angeles’ Black community members.
“I don’t want this to be something that gets pushed through,” he said. “I want this to pass … but when that happens, I want that to be a celebration.”
The proposals will now return to the Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee for additional review before they can be reconsidered for a future ballot.
