Immigrant voting is a historic American tradition.

For the first 150 years of our nation’s history, 40 states and territories at various times allowed noncitizens to vote. Immigrants could even run for and hold public office. However, in the nineteenth century, racist and exclusionary laws were enacted across the country to take away the ability and right to vote from immigrants. Measure DD restores that right to vote in city elections in Santa Ana.

Federal law is clear that noncitizens can legally vote in local elections if state & local law allows it.

A 2023 court ruling confirmed it is constitutional for charter cities like Santa Ana to expand who can vote in local elections.

No one has been denied citizenship because they voted in a local election in other California cities where noncitizens may vote locally.

Some naturalization applicants had to go through additional review or wait longer, but so far, to our knowledge, no one has been denied citizenship for legally voting in a local election.

Since 2016, the San Francisco Department of Elections has never received a request from Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) for voter information, according to the director of the San Francisco Department of Elections.

Just as Californians of different immigration statuses can make the decision for themselves as to whether they want to apply for driver's licenses, Santa Ana residents should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to register to vote in local elections.

Noncitizen residents in Santa Ana contribute an estimated $117 million in state and local taxes to our economy each year.

According to research conducted by the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, noncitizens in Santa Ana contribute over $117 million in state and local taxes, in addition to the millions in federal taxes they pay.

Election services would need to be expanded, but costs would be a fraction of the city budget.

Santa Ana spent about $360,000 for the County of Orange to run the city’s 2022 general election. Just as increasing funding for youth services wouldn’t deplete the $734,000,000 city budget, neither will strengthening our democracy.

Many cities across the nation have already invested in strengthening democracy.

This includes: Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, CA; College Park, VT; Oakland, CA; and 11 cities in Maryland.

Legal challenges can happen any time the City of Santa Ana does anything.

Legal challenges can happen any time voters or the City Council take action to improve the city. That does not mean Santa Ana should be paralyzed into inaction. If we only took actions that could not potentially be disputed, the City would never do anything to improve residents’ lives.