A sign in English and Spanish directs voters at Fields Road Elementary School in Gaithersburg on primary election day in 2022. A growing number of municipalities in Maryland are allowing noncitizens vote in local elections. Photo by Margie Hyslop.
The Prince George’s County town of Edmonston became the latest municipality to give noncitizens the right to vote in local elections Wednesday, joining a growing number of towns in the state that grant the right.
A divided town council also voted to restore voting rights in municipal elections for “returning citizens,” or those who were previously incarcerated. That charter change passed 3-2, with Mayor Tracy Gant casting the deciding vote, while the noncitizen ordinance passed 2-1 with one abstention.
For Town Councilmember Kony Serrano-Portillo, winning local voting rights for noncitizens is personal.
A naturalized citizen who was born in El Salvador, Serrano-Portillo in 2023 became the first Latina elected to the Edmonston Town Council. Serrano-Portillo, who works as a political coordinator for the labor union, UNITE HERE, says she ran for office to expand rights among the town’s 2,000 residents, 62% of whom are Latino, and 40% are foreign born, according to the 2020 Census.
Serrano-Portillo said she knocked on a lot of doors ahead of a July hearing on the issue and met many immigrant neighbors who had lived in Edmonston for years, owned homes, raised children and paid taxes, but never had a chance to vote for their elected town officials.
“A lot of residents were excited about the opportunity, and would vote if given the chance,” she said. While some residents at the July hearing expressed concern for public safety and foreign intervention, Serrano-Portillo said the “vast majority that came out were for [the measure].”
Both of the measures passed Wednesday require residents to have lived in Edmonston for at least one year to vote.
“People should have a say in [electing their] representatives,” Serrano-Portillo said. “It’s about engaging people in the process of local government and ensuring that they feel heard, they feel seen, and they feel like they are part of the process.”
Immigrants step up, testify for inclusion
Guatemalan Astrid Hernandez welcomed the news. She has lived with her husband and their two young children in Edmonston for over a year, on a four-year, nonimmigrant U visa, which can be granted to victims of certain crimes, allowing them to work. While she is uncertain about her future, she stepped up to testify in the July hearing, and says the new ordinance gives her hope.
“It is a relief, maybe not completely, but we are starting somewhere and we are on the right track,” she said. “I believe regardless of whether we are immigrants or not, I think that all have the right to be taken into account.”
Edmonston joins the nearby Prince George’s County jurisdictions of Brentwood, Mount Rainier and Colmar Manor, which have implemented noncitizen voting in recent years.
Monica Casañas, born in Colombia, is Colmar Manor’s first Latina mayor. She said that since the policy has been in effect, she’s seen greater voter turnout.
“People who had never voted came out and voted, and that to me made me so happy because were able to enable and empower people in their community, people who had lived here for a very long time,” she said. “And, that’s what elected officials want. We want to create community, and this is a very powerful tool in doing that.”
“Voting is not an American thing. It’s a human rights thing” Casañas said. “Everyone should have the ability to have a say.”
Some states block local voting by noncitizens
While municipalities in Maryland can allow noncitizen voting in local elections, the practice is banned in 15 states, including eight that approved measures at the polls this month to prohibit noncitizen voting in their state constitutions, according to Ballotpedia.
Ironically, says Viviana Westbrook, state and local advocacy attorney at CLINIC — the Catholic Legal Immigration Network — the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which made it illegal to vote as a noncitizen in federal elections, “Actually, it gives the right to determine whether you can vote at the state or local level,” she said. “This [act] authorizes voting, in language of the law, under a state constitution, statute, or local ordinance.”
Sixteen jurisdictions in Maryland allow noncitizen voting, more than any other state.
Maryland is among 12 states, whose constitutions specifically allow its municipalities to grant the right to noncitizens. In the Washington metro region, the practice is not uncommon and growing. Takoma Park granted noncitizens local voting rights in 1985, and extended that right to 16-and 17-year-olds in 2013. In May, the Washington, D.C., Council approved a noncitizen voting policy for city elections.
Westbrook said she is encouraged by the news from Edmonston, which follows approval earlier this fall in Greenbelt and in Frederick, the largest municipality in the state to let noncitizens vote in local elections.
“Now more than ever, we need to continue educating our communities and empowering those who are directly impacted to be able to tell their stories,” she said. “This is what truly helps build bridges and moves us toward a real inclusion of our immigrant neighbors.”