David Andersson

New York City: At the New School’s Eugene Lang College on Wednesday, March 23, the NY Coalition to Expand Voting Rights held a free public forum on non-citizen voting rights and a discussion about Intro. 410, legislation recently introduced in the City Council that would restore municipal voting rights for legally residing non-citizens in New York City.

We are about to witness a new and a rather unconventional contribution of the immigrant community in New York. This time it will not be with work and cheap labor, or with cultural art and entertainment, or even with food. It will be by resuscitating our old and paralyzed democracy. The state of affairs of our democracy is in general pathetic, and even worse at the local level.

On this chilly morning of the day before midterm elections, the supporters of the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights, a group working to change New York City law to give all documented residents the right to vote in municipal elections, gathered in front of the Board of Elections on Broadway in lower Manhattan.