Los Angeles Voters Could Decide Whether Noncitizens Vote in City Elections

No, I'm not making this up.

Los Angeles Voters Could Decide Whether Noncitizens Can Fill Ballot in City Elections

Ground News, June 24, 2026

The 10-5 vote would let city voters decide whether noncitizens can cast ballots in citywide and Los Angeles Unified School District elections.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10-5 to place a charter amendment on the November ballot, potentially allowing noncitizens to vote in municipal and Los Angeles Unified School District elections.

Proponents argue the measure addresses the founding principle of "no taxation without representation," while election law professor Justin Levitt at Loyola Marymount University Law School noted noncitizens voted during the first roughly 75 years of United States history.

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez proposed the measure, which requires further legal drafting and a secondary council vote; political analyst Luis Alvarado questioned how implementation and registration would work amid potential electoral confusion.

If the measure passes on the November ballot, it will likely face immediate legal challenges; Alvarado noted success may depend on fundraising between supporters and "the campaign to defeat it."

Joining San Francisco and Oakland, Los Angeles is acting as "a political lab for the rest of the nation," Alvarado said, by exploring limited voting exceptions for noncitizens in local elections.3