Nathan Hunstad wrote:
>In some parts of Europe non-citizens are already allowed to vote in local
elections.
I was living in the Netherlands in the mid-eighties when noncitizen
immigrants were first given that right. In order to be eligible, a person
had to have lived in the country for at least five years. Nathan and
others who support this idea, have you considered what sort of requirements
we would want to have here?
My hunch is that the Netherlands and other European countries have a higher
percentage of resident aliens who never persue citizenship. All the same,
I think it would be a good idea here, for all the reasons that others have
given. People who pay taxes and send their kids to public schools ought to
have some say in how the taxes are spent and how their kids get educated.
And resident aliens would be encouraged to take more of an interest in the
political system and the community at large.
Since I was in the Netherlands for only two years, I was never able to vote
there. But because I knew that I might stay long enough to be eligible, I
made more of an effort to understand the political system and the
government of the community where I lived.
Rosalind Nelson
Bancroft
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