In New York City, it’s harder to eat out than it is to vote.
The city’s vaccine passport policy requires all patrons of restaurants, gyms, museums, and other indoor venues to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and a photo ID to prove said vaccine card is really yours. But to vote, all that’s required is some sort of proof that you’ve lived in the city for at least 30 days. You don’t even have to be a U.S. citizen, according to a new law passed by the city council.
The “Our City, Our Vote” measure, passed by city council members in December and supported by Mayor Eric Adams this week, allows nearly 800,000 legal, noncitizen residents, such as green card holders or DACA recipients, to vote in municipal elections. Adams initially criticized the proposal as a “problem,” but he changed his tune after taking office in January, saying he wanted to bring “millions more into the democratic process.”
“While I initially had some concerns about one aspect of the bill, I had a productive dialogue with my colleagues in government that put those concerns at ease. I believe allowing the legislation to be enacted is by far the best choice,” the Democrat said in a statement Saturday.
The best choice for whom? Surely not for the immigrants who might be deterred from pursuing full citizenship now that they’re being handed its perks on a silver platter, nor for the city’s legal citizens who will now have to worry about the integrity of city races in which foreign citizens make up of a wide share of the vote.
The only party this law serves is the Democrats, who are eager to get rid of all voting regulations nationwide. Allowing noncitizens to vote is just the start, and the city won’t be the only blue area to adopt such a change. As former Councilman David Dromm once said, “As New York City goes, so goes the rest of the world.”
