Just for some perspective...

[turil.livejournal.com]

Joe Curtatone, while winning the election for mayor, was voted in by less than 8% of Somerville's human population.

Comments

Re: Felons can vote in Massachusetts

[ron_newman]

Non-citizens (including legal ones) are excluded. A reasonable argument can be made to allow them to vote in local elections.

One person one vote

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Let's set aside non US Citizens who would otherwise be Somerville residents.

The argument against letting non local residents vote is to prevent outside forces from interfering with local elections. Moreover, any person of legal voting age is or readily can be a resident somewhere. Either become a resident of Somerville (easy) or vote in your original location (equally easy).

Let's assume the following hypothetical: Let's say Massachusetts never legalized equal marriage. Say Somerville wanted to legalize equal marriage within the City of Somerville, and this was perfectly legal to do if a referendum passed. Can you imagine the outside wingnuts flocking to vote in our local election to overrule legitimate local vote on the matter?

Re: One person one vote

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

That sort of thing was a major issue in the 19th century. There were people crossing state lines just to vote in an election on a variety of issues. It really mucked up the legal wrangling around slavery. The bottom line is, if you allow non-residents to vote you open up a major can of worms.

Re: One person one vote

[ron_newman]

I don't think non-residents of Somerville should vote in Somerville elections either -- but I do think non-citizens who are Somerville residents should be able to vote here.

Re: One person one vote

[ron_newman]

Who said anything about non local residents? I was referring specifically to the group you 'set aside' -- non-citizens who live in Somerville. I'd like to see them be eligible to vote here.

Re: One person one vote

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I can, it'd be like the Kansas and Nebraska slavery votes.