College Park, MD votes to allow non-citizens to vote in city elections

[Santander]

I would have no problem with this if it were limited to immigrant aliens, i.e. green card holders. Immigrant aliens have virtually all of the rights and responsibilities of citizens anyway, including the right to participate in the political process. But extending the right to non-immigrant aliens and even illegal aliens is insane.

Is that Constitutional?

It was common practice for most of the 19th century.

Here is what Wikipedia has:

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Yeah, but there is a difference between non-citizen voting and illegal immigrant voting.

[Santander]

IF they're legal non-citizens, and it's limited to local elections, I'm okay with it, but that's it. Anything beyond that is too much.

I can agree with this as a compromise.

The illegal immigrant part is the entire issue. There is no "compromise".

[Santander]

How would an illegal resident register to vote? Or they could just walk in and vote without having to give their name or anything? I always have to say who I am at least and and give my address so they can check me off of their list from my registration.

At least in the past, illegal immigrants from NY/NJ sometimes went to Maryland to get driver's licenses.

[Santander]

Good. No taxation without representation, no exceptions. Hopefully this will soon be statewide.

Tourists pay taxes. Children pay taxes. Should they get a vote too?

[Santander]

Good. No taxation without representation, no exceptions. Hopefully this will soon be statewide.

Tourists pay taxes. Children pay taxes. Should they get a vote too?

Tourists shouldn't pay taxes, and we should have a tax reimbursement system like the EU operated by the states to account for this. Hence, they should not be able to vote. I am firmly of the belief that someone who does pay taxes, no matter how young, should be elligible to vote, at least for the authority that levied those taxes.

A tourist from Texas visiting New York pays New York sales taxes. No such mechanism exists in other countries for domestic tourists getting their sales tax refunded. Would you refund their sales taxes too? Imagine the cost of administering such a system in every state. Furthermore, while sales taxes are refunded in many countries, other taxes such as tourism taxes, airport taxes, fuel taxes, excise taxes, and hotel taxes are not refunded.

And as far as children voting goes, if you consider them responsible enough to vote just like adults can, you have to also consider them responsible for their actions just like adults. It's a ludicrous path to go down.

[Santander]

This...this can't be constitutional, let alone should not be allowed.

One of the privileges of being a citizen is having the right to vote.  You can't just walk into the United States and vote.

This is ridiculous.

four million American citizens from Guam, the Pacific islands, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico say hello

There is no legal difference in citizenship from US citizens from the unincorporated territories and those from the 50 states, with the exception of American Samoans with no connection to the 50 states, who are technically non-citizen US nationals. (which is an unfortunate situation) If a Californian moves to San Juan, they disenfranchise themselves from Presidential elections, and if a Puerto Rican moves to San Diego, they have the same political franchise as their mainland-born neighbors. The ineligibility of residents in unincorporated territories to vote for President is a matter of rights and corresponding responsibilities. Not all of the Constitution (from which voting rights originate) applies in unincorporated territories, and they are also free to establish their own customs, immigration, social, and business laws to some extent. They could also choose to become independent or negotiate a free association relationship with the US, while the states are bound in an indivisible union.

One of the only ways for a US citizen, national, or resident alien to not pay federal income tax is to live in an unincorporated territory. Not even US citizens living abroad are exempt from federal income tax, which is why they are entitled to vote for President, while residents of the unincorporated territories are not.

An argument could possibly be made that since unincorporated territories are under US sovereignty, and thus cannot establish their own foreign policy while they retain their legal status, that should be enough reason on its own for their residents to be able to vote for President, but that is a complex Constitutional issue. The Constitution was not meant to handle an empire. I'm sympathetic to such views, but the voting rights situation in the unincorporated territories is definitely not a matter of the federal government being mean to non-whites in distant territories.