[crazcarl]

I guess that makes sense on the national level, but couldn't you say that same thing about citizens voting in local politics? They can just move to a different city or state. I don't see a difference right away, but I'm interested in another take on it as far as where the line should be drawn on who gets to vote or not.

[jeffreyrogers]

Yeah, I think that's a fair criticism. I guess to be logically consistent I'd have to be on board with not letting people vote unless they've lived in an area long enough or own property or something (requiring property ownership seems like a bad idea). I'm not sure how I feel about that though. I guess one thing I can think of is that if you're a citizen you at least nominally share many American values, which is not necessarily true for someone who is just here for career reasons.

[pm90]

Your reasoning doesn't make any sense. The criteria for people to have a voice in local politics shouldn't be a test as to whether they share in "American" values, whatever that means. If you had all those neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottsville move to SF tomorrow, who are US citizens but presumably (hopefully?) don't share in American values in your view, they would have the ability to vote in local elections.

People who pay rent and establish a residence should have a voice in their local(city) elections. Full Stop. Immigrants were allowed limited voting rights in State elections until the 1920's when very anti-immigrant sentiments lead to laws that prohibit that kind of voting.