Despite receiving pushback from local counsel, Portland, Maine’s new Charter Commission voted 10–2 earlier this month in favor of allowing noncitizens to vote in city elections. The commission’s legal team has now been tasked with drafting a noncitizen-voting proposal to be put to local voters as a future ballot question.
If the proposal is ultimately approved by voters and survives the legal challenges that would surely result, Portland would become the 16th jurisdiction in the country to allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections, joining eleven jurisdictions in Maryland, two in Vermont, New York City, and San Francisco.
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