During a debate among candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday, 6 May, participants were asked about a controversial proposal by an LA Council member that would allow non-citizens to vote in local municipal elections.
The three candidates on stage were Republican Spencer Pratt (who, much like President Trump, appeared on reality television before entering politics), Democrat Nithya Raman, and incumbent LA Mayor Karen Bass, who is also a member of the Democratic Party.
Pratt offered a flat-out rejection to the proposal. However, the two Democrats chose to equivocate instead of giving a clear answer—more concerningly, Mayor Bass as well, who has been running the municipal government of the second most populous city of the United States since 2022.
‘It depends, it’s not a yes or no [question]…If you say non-citizens, it doesn’t mean they’re here illegal[ly]. It doesn’t mean they’re undocumented. They can have green cards, they can be here perfectly legally, and there are a lot of states and cities that do that on very, very local elections. We have to see what the Councilman is proposing,’ Mayor Bass said in a clip of the debate that has received a lot of attention online after being posted by the popular right-wing X account Libs of TikTok.
As for Mayor Bass’ claim that some cities and states in the US already have non-citizens voting in local elections, that is a very dubious one.
Federal law currently prohibits people who do not have US citizenship from voting in any election. In all 49 states with voter registration (the exception being North Dakota), the person has to declare under the threat of perjury that they are a US citizen during the registration process.
Despite that, the City Council in New York City, New York passed a law allowing legal non-citizen residents to vote in municipal elections in 2021. However, the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, ruled that it was unconstitutional in March 2025.
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