Tuesday, May 25, 2004
The Non-citizen Voting thing...
Supervisor Gonzalez has been talking about allowing non-citizens the right to vote in local school board elections.
Seems like an odd idea, until you look at the idea that 16% of SF population consists of non-citizens... and you remember that any kid born here IS a citizen, and thus is most probably in the public school system... so what goes on in the school system is very important to the parents of these kids.
There are strong arguments the other way, of course: voting is a right that many immigrants who work to become citizens really respect, and this would be a slap in the face to all of them...
I wonder how much of that 16% number is French waiters and Irish bartenders over here just making dough, and not immigrant families concerned for their kids?
and I wonder how many immigrants feel that it would be too risky to go vote in some election that might end up pointing out problems in their visas, work permits, or green cards, or whatever?
But, heck, we can barely get our American-born butts off the couch and get over to the voting booth in any sort of numbers, why not give some few folks who really want the chance the opportunity?
