Vermont Supreme Court upholds law allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of a law permitting noncitizens to vote in local, municipal elections.

In 2021, the state Legislature backed bills to change the local charters of Montpelier and Winooski to permit noncitizen voting in local elections. Though Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed those measures, the Democratic Legislature overrode his objections, the Associated Press reported.

The city of Montpelier has nine registered noncitizen voters, per the outlet. In Winooski, 55 noncitizens voted on local issues in an election held in March of last year.

The Republican National Committee had asked the court to declare noncitizen voting in violation of the state constitution, which the court declined to do.

"The statute allowing noncitizens to vote in local Montpelier elections does not violate Chapter II, § 42 because that constitutional provision does not apply to local elections," the court wrote.

Democrats in other states have begun to examine noncitizen voting proposals as well. In Connecticut, for instance, the Democratic state House is mulling a proposal to "allow undocumented immigrants who are residents of the state to vote in municipal and state elections." 

Republicans have firmly come down against such measures, with the Connecticut GOP asserting that their counterparts across the aisle have "lost their minds."