Non-citizen voter access question on Winooski ballot this November

Winooski voters will decide in November whether to allow residents who are not United States citizens to vote in local elections. 

The city council voted Aug.18 to present charter change recommendations to the public when the general election is held Nov. 3. The recommendations come with other minor changes to the city charter, like removing religious language from the oath of office and updating tax assessment practices. If passed, the charter change package would allow all residents, including non-citizens, to participate in city and school meetings and elections.

The non-citizen voting proposal is the result of an ongoing effort by city officials over the past two years. 

“We have a significant number of new Americans who make Winooski their home,” Hal Colston, Winooski’s deputy mayor, said this week. “Having the most diverse community in northern New England, we're missing out on a significant part of our community's voice by not allowing them to vote in local elections.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18% of Winooski’s residents were born on foreign soil, and 11% are non-citizens.

Pablo Bose, an assistant professor at the University of Vermont and a Winooski resident, pointed out that becoming a United States citizen can be a lengthy and expensive process. 

“There are a lot of barriers,” said Bose, who studies migration and transnationalism, the process of settlement across international borders in which individuals build or maintain networks of connection to their country of origin. “The process, as most people who have gone through immigration and then citizenship will tell you, is really long and pretty complicated one.”

Bose said that depriving a large chunk of the city’s population from being able to participate contradicts the effort to make Winooski more welcoming. A significant portion of the population is not currently permitted to vote, serve on municipal boards and in other ways participate in their own governance.

“Proponents of initiatives like this have said ‘you want to buy into the city’,” Bose said. The great majority of immigrants in Winooski are refugees. They come into the country and for one year they retain refugee status, then transition to seeking a green card, Bose said. People have to wait five years to apply for citizenship, or three years if a person’s spouse is a U.S. citizen. 

“So, it disenfranchises people right when you want them engaged in the city,” Bose said. 

He is a strong supporter of the charter change and thinks that it will create a tangible positive difference in the community. 

Mayor Kristine Lott said the proposal has divided the community, but she herself is a strong supporter of non-citizen voting. 

“[Immigrants are] here contributing to the community every day. They should be heard,” she said. Lott said that she has spoken with residents on both sides of the debate and said many opponents believe that voting rights should be a reward for citizenship. 

Lott said she remains optimistic but is unsure of the final outcome. In 2019 while canvasing door-to-door for her mayoral race, the non-citizen voting was a hot topic and she heard a lot of both sides. 

Among the opponents of the ballot item is resident George Cross, a retired school superintendent and former state representative. 

 “As Winooski-ites, we ought to be doing everything we can to assist our friends and neighbors to become citizens. One of the reasons for being a citizen is having the opportunity to vote,” Cross said. 

Cross said that people who believe all residents should vote in local elections should work to pass state legislation so that voting policy is consistent throughout Vermont communities.

“I think that the supporters of that part of the charter change have the right idea, but I don’t think they’re going about it in the right way,” he said.

While each municipality retains the right to set its own voter qualifications Cross worries that setting a precedent could have unintended consequences. 

If Winooski voters approve the non-citizen voting proposal in November, the charter changes will then need to be approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor.