San Jose to resolve transferring mayoral election, undocumented vote

By the end of 2022, San Jose voters could postpone the city’s future mayoral elections to presidential years and potentially give non-citizens living in the city the right to vote in upcoming elections.

By a 10-to-1 vote Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council voted to move forward with a measure in the June 7, 2022 vote asking voters to move the city’s mayoral elections from mid-election years to presidential election years beginning in 2024. The move, which has been in the works for years, will help increase voter turnout and improve representation in the city’s mayoral elections, according to supporters.

“It was a long time coming,” said City Councilor Maya Esparza. “Our current system was designed to suppress votes – it was designed to suppress certain types of votes and allow other votes.”

City leaders also agreed to explore possible additional voting measures for November’s election, including a controversial proposal that the city extend voting rights for local races to non-citizens, such as B. Undocumented immigrants and legal non-citizens who are green card holders or have the right to study or work in the United States

Councilwoman Dev Davis voted against both postponing the mayoral election and considering extending voting rights to non-citizens, saying she didn’t think it was “fair or right.”

If the June 2022 voting measure is approved, the next San Jose mayor elected this year would serve an initial two-year term and then have the option to serve two additional four-year terms in 2024 and 2028 to run for a potential of up to 10 years in office.

Tuesday night’s City Council decisions follow months of work and protracted public meetings by the city’s Charter Review Commission, which was made up of a group of 23 residents appointed by City Council to make recommendations on potential changes to the city’s charter. The commission was formed after Mayor Sam Liccardo endorsed — and then abruptly gave up — a “strong mayor” measure that could potentially have given him significantly more power and an extra two years in office.

The commission’s final report, released Tuesday night, made 17 recommendations, ranging from increasing the number of city council seats from 10 to 14 wards to removing citizenship requirements for board and commission members and public safety reforms such as creating a police rich commission and gave the city’s independent police examiner subpoena powers and full access to unedited records.

The commission did not recommend that the city adopt a “strong mayor” style of government. They did not discuss the proposal to extend voting rights to non-citizens living in San Jose.

The council will hold two study sessions in the coming months to narrow down what recommendations any future election action will make. One meeting will focus on the Charter Review Commission’s recommendations, and another will focus on extending voting rights to non-citizens – a proposal put forward by councilors Magdalena Carrasco and Sylvia Arenas after the commission’s work was completed.

In the United States, more than a dozen municipalities currently allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. New York City earlier this month became the nation’s largest municipality allowing legal noncitizen residents to vote in all local elections, provided they are green card holders or have the right to work in the United States. San Francisco voters approved a measure in 2016 that would give parents without citizenship the right to vote in school board elections.

Councilors Carrasco and Arenas, who are campaigning for San Jose to join these other cities, say it would give a voice to those who have long been excluded from participating in the democratic process but play an important role in the community, including business owners, essential workers and consumers.

“Some of these people have been here longer than our own council members,” Carrasco said. “… It is a fantastic thing to give our citizens the opportunity to have a say in their democratic process.”

Santa Clara County is home to nearly 366,600 non-citizens, most of whom are lawful residents but not citizens such as

Dozens of residents who called in support of expanding the city’s voting rights Tuesday night said it would create a “more democratic,” “more inclusive,” and “racially just” city, arguing it was unfair for immigrants to have to pay taxes but local politics could not falter.

“Immigrants here have helped build our city’s infrastructure and prosperity, but we’ve left so many of them without the right to vote in local decisions that directly affect their lives,” said resident Nicholas Hurley.

However, other residents strongly opposed the last-minute proposal, calling it “ridiculous” and arguing that immigrants should be required to go through the relevant citizenship process before acquiring the right to vote.

“I think it’s an attempt to let foreigners take over our city,” said a resident named Brenda. “This is America — if you become a citizen, you get the right to vote.”

During their discussion, several council members expressed that the article “brought out the worst in people” and noted that their inboxes were flooded with “appalling” and racist emails about immigrants.