Thread coming ... 1/x
https://twitter.com/cliffordlevy/status/1463131891620622340
Noncitizen voting was quite common in 19th century America, especially on the frontier. As this short history comments: "Many new states and territories used alien suffrage as an incentive to attract settlers." 2/x nypl.org/sites/default/…
The rules on noncitizen voting tightened in the late 19th and early 20th century, as Alexander Keyssar describes in his history of voting rights in the US 3/x ash.harvard.edu/publications/r…
What happened? The reading suggests 2 main factors:
1) Between the economic depressions of 1873 and 1893, the US entered a period of intensely close political competition. EG the presidential election of 1884 turned on fewer than 600 votes in the state of New York. 4/x
1) Between the economic depressions of 1873 and 1893, the US entered a period of intensely close political competition. EG the presidential election of 1884 turned on fewer than 600 votes in the state of New York. 4/x
Before the Civil War, immigrant voting had typically favored Republicans. In the hyper-competitive 1880s, the immigrant vote shifted to the Democrats - and became perceived by Republicans as a threat. 5/x
2) The second factor was that as the immigrant vote concentrated in cities after 1880, it became associated with the drunkenness and rowdyism that many non-urban people attributed to urban elections. 6/x
Immigrant voting today qualifies as a "progressive" cause. But back in the 1890s, it was Progressives who led the fight against it. They tended to see the Democrats as the more reactionary party, opposed to necessary reforms including women's suffrage. 7/x
By 1920, immigrant voting had been almost entirely suppressed - and the voting place had become quieter, more orderly, and more welcoming to women. 8/x
Some lessons from the past:
1) Immigrant voting became unacceptable because it seemed to tilt close elections to one party;
2) Immigrant voting got associated with other behaviors that seemed to contemporaries indisputably bad; and finally ... 9/x
1) Immigrant voting became unacceptable because it seemed to tilt close elections to one party;
2) Immigrant voting got associated with other behaviors that seemed to contemporaries indisputably bad; and finally ... 9/x
3) Because so many of the urban immigrants of 1880-1914 returned home, it gave grounds to question whether immigrant voters truly intended to join the American political community fully and forever. 10/x digitalhistory.uh.edu/voices/italian…
At a time when voting rights are under pressure across the country, New York City's experiment with noncitizen voting risks providing new justifications for those who want to restrict voting rights in other states. 11/x
New York City is conferring voting rights only on permanent residents, and only in local elections. But that's not how the story will be told in Georgia and Wisconsin by those who want to stifle election competition in those states. 12/x
Think twice. And realize that life is full of trade-offs between social reforms. To choose some is to preclude others, in the early 21st c. as in the early 20th. END
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