SUN COMMUNITY NEWS AND PRINTING (PLATTSBURG, NEW YORK) -- Ron Hayduk is a professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. Formerly a social worker, he was the coordinator of the New York City Voter Assistance Commission and consulted to policy organizations including Demos, NAACP, Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change.
He wrote this essay on the history of non-U.S. citizens having the right to vote in Vermont.
“Vermont’s state elections law has changed since the days of Woodcock v. Bolster. Although the law previously contained different sections describing the qualifications for state-level and municipal-level voters, the qualifications for voting in all elections within the state are now the same.
“Following a general revision in 1977, Vermont election law states that those who are U.S. citizens, have taken the voter’s oath, are residents of Vermont, and are 18 years of age or older, ‘may register to vote in the town of his residence in any election held in a political subdivision of this state in which he resides.’
“Accordingly, while current non-citizens voting rights campaigns can draw on Vermont’s history of non-citizen voting, they may need to seek a change in the state electoral law in order to allow non-citizens to register to vote in town or school elections.”