FINALLY! Judge throws out non-citizen voting in NYC municipal elections

A New York judge has thrown out a law previously enacted by the New York City council that would have given local voting rights to approximately 800,000 or more non-U.S. citizens.

The measure known as Local Law 11 of 2022 or the Municipal Voting Law, which was approved by the city council in December on a 33-14 vote, required a mere 30-days of residence by green-card holders or permanent legal residents to qualify to get on the Big Apple’s voter rolls.

Common sense suggests that the open-ended nature of the eligibility requirement could result in some degree of fraud.

Mayor Eric Adams, who had said he was generally supportive with some misgivings, allowed the bill, which was set to take effect in January 2023, to become law without his signature. Before he left office on December 31, even far-left Mayor Bill de Blasio also declined to either sign or or veto it.

As BPR previously observed, legal challenges were likely to an election law change that critics viewed as a Democrat power grab in a city that is already overwhelmingly blue.

Leaving no ambiguity in a 13-page ruling issued on Monday, Staten Island Judge Ralph J. Porzio in the Supreme Court (which, in New York, is actually a lower trial court) declared the New York City law illegal, null, and void because it violated the state’s constitution, and other laws on the books.

The judge also issued a permanent injunction, which tends to be an extraordinary remedy, that prevents the defendants, which consisted of Adams, the city’s board of elections, and the city council, from registering noncitizens to vote.

The judge concluded his decision as follows:

The New York State Constitution expressly states that citizens meeting the age and residency requirements are entitled to register and vote in elections. The New York State Election Law reaffirms that citizens meeting the age and residency requirements are entitled to register and vote in elections. There is no statutory ability for the City of New York to issue inconsistent laws permitting non-citizens to vote and exceed the authority granted to it by the New York State Constitution. Though voting is a right that so many citizens take for granted, the City of New York cannot “obviate” the restrictions imposed by the Constitution.

The entire opinion is embedded below.

Judicial Order in New York … by Spencer Brown

 

The Adams administration could appeal this ruling, and an Adams spokesman told The New York Times that the mayor’s team is “evaluating next steps.”

Reacting to the legal win via a statement, City Council minority leader Joe Borelli, a Staten Island Republican who was one of the plaintiffs in the case, said that “Today’s decision validates those of us who can read the plain English words of our state constitution and state statutes: non-citizen voting in New York is illegal and shame on those who thought they could skirt the law for political gain. opposition to this measure was bipartisan and cut across countless neighborhood and ethnic lines, yet progressives chose to ignore both our constitution and public sentiment in order to suit their aims.”

“The Republican National Committee and New York Republican State Committee joined a group of officeholders and individual voters who sued city officials over the law,” Fox News explained about the legal challenge.

Various GOP officials and others are lauding the decision. Here is just a sample:

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