Largely Symbolic: San Francisco Spends $300K To Register Non-citizen Voters

image
Author: Jeff Powers
Published: 29 Oct, 2018
Updated: 21 Nov, 2022
1 min read

San Diego, CALIF.- 49 signups.

That's the result of the City of San Francisco's effort to register non-citizen voters for local board of education races.

The 49 signups come to about $6,326 per sign up.

The program is the first-of-its-kind in California and followed the passage of a 2016 San Francisco ballot measure opening school elections to non-citizens who are over the age of 18, city residents and have children under age 19.

Back in July, the city began registering non-citizens — including undocumented immigrants.

The tab has so far totaled about $310,000 setting up the new registration system and encouraging people to sign up. At the time it was placed on the ballot, the City Controller Ben Rosenfield noted Proposition N would cost an estimated $160,000 per election to print and distribute voting materials, train poll workers and separately register people who would become eligible to vote in School Board elections.

Controversial Move

The effort has been a controversial one.

And one likely to rally conservative voices as the caravans continue their march to the border.

Shamann Walton is the San Francisco Unified School District commissioner who introduced the resolution to the school board in support of Measure N in 2016. She said he doesn’t buy into the "concerned" rhetoric, “At the end of the day, for me, it’s important that families who have children in our school to have a say,” he said.

IVP Donate

Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, a group that lobbies for stricter immigration enforcement said of the effort, “Non-citizen voting is a very contentious issue,” Hvidston said. “The move to extend voting rights to those illegally residing in San Francisco has the potential to backfire among citizens with a moderate stance on illegal immigration.”

Travis Allen, the gubernatorial candidate who did not make the top two in June, tweeted the following:

https://twitter.com/JoinTravisAllen/status/1056719833901883398

Latest articles

Marijuana plant.
Why the War on Cannabis Refuses to Die: How Boomers and the Yippies Made Weed Political
For much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American physicians freely prescribed cannabis to treat a wide range of ailments. But by the mid-twentieth century, federal officials were laying the groundwork for a sweeping criminal crackdown. Cannabis would ultimately be classified as a Schedule I substance, placed alongside heroin and LSD, and transformed into a political weapon that shaped American policy for the next six decades....
30 Jun, 2025
-
2 min read
Donald Trump standing behind presidential podium and in front of two American flags.
Has Trump Made His Case for the Nobel Peace Prize?
A news item in recent days that was overshadowed in the media by SCOTUS and the One Big Beautiful Budget Bill was a US-brokered peace agreement that was signed between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – which if it holds will end a conflict between the two countries that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of people....
30 Jun, 2025
-
7 min read
Picture of skyscraper in New York behind a bridge.
Knives Come Out Against Reform at NYC CRC Hearing as Independents Rise
Last week in Staten Island, the NYC Charter Revision Commission held its next-to-last public hearing. As Commissioner Diane Savino commented, addressing NYC's closed primary system “is the single biggest issue we’ve heard this year.”...
30 Jun, 2025
-
3 min read