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Noncitizen voting is a bad idea…and a political gift to L.A.’s critics

May 1, 2026

Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez wants to ask voters to let noncitizens vote in city of Los Angeles and LAUSD elections.

Supporters, two Democratic Socialist city councilmembers, call it inclusion. They argue that noncitizens pay taxes, send their children to public schools, and live under the laws enacted by local officials. That argument has emotional appeal. It’s also deeply flawed.

Voting is not a customer-service survey. It’s not a receipt for paying sales tax, rent, or utility bills. Voting is the highest civic act in a constitutional republic. In America, it’s tied to citizenship for a reason.

Citizenship is a legal and civic commitment. Naturalized citizens study American history, pass a civics test, swear allegiance to the United States, and accept the duties of membership in the political community. Granting local voting power to people who have not completed that process or who have no interest in doing so, including those here unlawfully, cheapens the commitment made by millions of immigrants who did.

That’s the first flaw in Soto-Martínez’s motion: it confuses residency with citizenship.

The second flaw is administrative. How exactly would Los Angeles run two voter systems, one for federal and state elections and another for local races, without creating confusion, litigation, and mistrust? Ballots would need to be separated, databases would need to be segregated, and poll workers would need to explain who can vote for what.

At a time when confidence in elections is already fragile, Los Angeles should not create a system that invites accusations of error or abuse. Even if every mistake were innocent, the political damage would be real. Election integrity depends not only on fairness but also on public trust that the rules are clear, enforceable, and equal.

The third flaw is political blindness.

Los Angeles has already declared itself a sanctuary city. City leaders say they want to protect immigrant communities from federal enforcement. This proposal would require a registration list identifying noncitizens who want to vote in local elections. Supporters may promise confidentiality, but any government-created list can become a target for another government.

That is not protection. That is exposure.

Even politicians who sympathize with the immigrant community should recognize the danger: asking undocumented residents to place their names on an official voter list during an era of aggressive federal immigration enforcement could put the very people Soto-Martínez claims to defend at greater risk.

Then comes the unintended consequence.

Los Angeles is about to host the world. The region will welcome the FIFA World Cup in 2026, Super Bowl LXI in 2027, and the Summer Olympics in 2028. These sports spectacles should be a moment for City Hall to project competence, stability, and seriousness. Instead, this motion risks making Los Angeles a national symbol of progressive overreach at precisely the wrong time.

Should this motion receive City Council approval and win at the ballot box, the result could be exactly the opposite of what supporters intend. Instead of building public support for immigrant communities, it could harden opposition. Instead of protecting local control, it could invite retaliation from state and federal authorities. Instead of strengthening democracy, it could persuade more voters that politicians are changing the rules to benefit themselves.

Los Angeles has plenty of urgent problems: homelessness, crime, affordability, failing schools, broken sidewalks, rising taxes, and a City Hall ethics crisis that still has not fully faded from memory. Noncitizen voting solves none of them.

Immigrants deserve respect. Legal residents deserve a responsive government. Undocumented families deserve humane treatment. But the right to vote is not a participation trophy. It is the defining privilege of citizenship.

The Los Angeles City Council should fix the city it already governs, not blur the line between living in Los Angeles and governing it.

This misguided motion by a Democratic Socialist councilmember deserves a loud, emphatic no vote from the full City Council.

Matt Klink is owner and president of Klink Campaigns, Inc., a Los Angeles-based public affairs and political consulting firm.

Orange County Register

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Noncitizen voting is a bad idea…and a political gift to L.A.’s critics

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