During a February 8 worksession, Greenbelt’s Board of Elections and the Greenbelt City Council debated extending votes in city elections to all Greenbelt residents, regardless of citizenship status. Investigating this question had been a referral from council to the board. Other local municipalities, including Hyattsville, Cheverly and Takoma Park already do this. Councilmember Ric Gordon shared that New Carrollton, Mount Rainier and Brightwood are also “looking heavily at this.”
Charter and code amendments would be required and council discussed what proof and duration of residency should be required.
Most councilmembers expressed a preference for greater inclusion in voting. “The question of whether or not they are a citizen is not as important as the fact that they are Greenbelters and that they are involved in a lot of different ways … I know there are a lot of other views, strong views, on this,” stated Mayor Emmett Jordan.
Although Councilmember Silke Pope is a naturalized citizen and freely admitted that
citizenship requires many steps and “money, a lot of money,” she repeatedly stated, “I could not support this.”
Councilmember Kristen Weaver spoke passionately about the large number of dedicated and involved residents who may not yet have citizenship because “our immigration system is broken.”
Councilmember Rodney Roberts expressed the opinion that only citizens should be able to vote in federal and state elections, and that non-citizen residents should live in Greenbelt for “more than a year” to be “educated about the community” before being offered the right to vote in municipal elections.
Because of Greenbelt’s reliance on the county board of elections, a separate registry would need to be set up within city administration. Both Hyattsville and Takoma Park have larger staff and bigger budgets.
Resident Robert Goldberg-Strassler stated that approximately 50 persons in this category voted in Hyattsville’s last election. Hyattsville only requires 30 days residency to register, as Greenbelt does for citizen voters.
A slim majority of Greenbelt residents (by a question on the 2021 election survey) have spoken favorably on this. Jordan proposed putting this question to the voters as a ballot question in November’s election.
