Alderman Wants To Allow Noncitizens In Carrboro To Vote

[Stephanie]

POSTED: 3:57 pm EDT May 13, 2006
UPDATED: 3:57 pm EDT May 13, 2006

CARRBORO, N.C. -- A Carrboro alderman wants to make his city the first in North Carolina to let noncitizens vote.

At a meeting Friday between the Board of Aldermen and the Orange County legislative delegation, John Herrera asked the state lawmakers to take the topic to the General Assembly.

Herrera, a U.S. citizen who is a native of Costa Rica, said allowing future U.S. citizens and legal residents to vote in municipal elections will put them on the path to citizenship.

"In Carrboro, we would really like to be the pilot project in this," Herrera said.

Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and Reps. Joe Hackney and Verla Insko, all Democrats, said they liked the idea, but it would require amending the state constitution.
That means it would be more appropriate to raise it during a long session of the Legislature, that starts after the fall elections, not the short one that is under way now.

"This is a huge issue _ I mean huge _ if this is going to be a constitutional amendment," said Kinnaird, a former mayor of Carrboro. "So planting the seed in our minds is a good start."
http://www.wral.com/news/9211390/detail.html

 

[insein]

And so it begins...

 

[Stephanie]

And so it begins...

Exactly what I was thinking.