A judge in California recently overturned a law that allowed non-citizen parents to vote in school board elections in San Francisco, saying it violates the constitution and statutes of the state.
The move was similar to a separate ruling in late June by a judge in New York, who struck down a law that would have allowed over 800,000 non-citizens to vote in local elections.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Ulmer Jr. said in his ruling (pdf), filed on July 29, that the California Constitution only allows citizens to vote.
“‘A United States citizen 18 years of age and resident in this State may vote.’ Transcendent law of California, the constitution … reserves the vote to a ‘United States citizen,’ contrary to [the] San Francisco ordinance,” Ulmer wrote….