A New York City law that would have granted certain noncitizens the right to vote in city elections was found unconstitutional on Wednesday in a 3-to-1 opinion issued by the state Appellate Court, Second Department.
That opinion upholds most of a lower court ruling issued in 2022 by the Richmond County State Supreme Court on Staten Island.
The law, known as Local Law 11, would have granted legal permanent residents, including those with green cards, the right to cast a ballot in the races for mayor, public advocate, city comptroller, City Council and borough president. It would have also required the New York City Board of Elections to set up a separate voter registration system for a new class of “municipal voter.”
The opinion issued Wednesday came after oral arguments held over the summer in response to an appeal filed by Mayor Eric Adams, the city Law Department and several individual residents seeking to overturn the lower court’s decision and allow nearly a million legal permanent residents the right to participate in local elections.
In the majority opinion, written by Justices Angela Iannacci, Paul Wooten and Helen Voutsinas, the court took issue with how the law was enacted through legislation as opposed to a ballot referendum, which is required under the Municipal Home Rule Law when changing the method of how people are elected to local offices.
“The enactment of the Local Law without a referendum improperly obviates the fundamental right of the voters to participate in the electoral process,” the justices wrote in the majority opinion.
They also noted that changing who could cast a ballot in local elections could also change who could hold those elected offices, suggesting the law could allow noncitizens to hold city elected positions.
In her dissent, Justice Lillian Wan wrote that the majority’s opinion threatened to limit municipalities’ ability to make decisions for themselves about their local elections.
“The majority, by deeming the…
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