Boston Debates Allowing Noncitizens to Vote Days Before Mayor’s Official ‘No-Whites’ Christmas Party

Ahead of Boston Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu’s “no whites” Christmas party, the city council was seen debating whether or not to allow noncitizens to vote in city elections.

The council first discussed the issue during a December 4 council meeting when councilor Kendra Lara introduced a home rule petition to open the polls to noncitizens {snip}

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The council members heard from Jessie Carpenter, a city clerk for Takoma Park, Maryland, who told them her small jurisdiction had “hundreds” of noncitizens registered as voters after they began allowing noncitizens to vote.

However, it became clear that Boston — which reportedly has 672,000 residents with 28.2% being foreign-born, according to the city website — would have thousands of noncitizen voters to identify if the ordinance were passed {snip}

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Elections Commissioner Eneida Tavares insisted that allowing noncitizens to vote in the far larger town of Boston would present a very difficult challenge for maintaining voter rolls.

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Tavares also warned that if a noncitizen registers to vote, their information becomes public record and city officials would not be able to keep an individual’s immigration status private if courts or law enforcement were to request the information.

Other council members worried that noncitizens would also think they could vote in state and federal elections when their new ordinance would only allow them to vote in citywide elections. This, the critics worried, would “accidentally” put noncitizens in a position of committing voter fraud by illegally casting ballots for elections other than city elections.

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Meanwhile, only days later, Wu was mired in controversy by hosting a no-whites-allowed Christmas party, which she scheduled for the same night as the city council’s holiday party that included all races.

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Wu’s segregated party even excluded her own husband, Conor, who is a white man.

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