The city council held a hearing this week on whether to grant voting rights to some noncitizens in local elections, voting rights.
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Officials in Boston are considering whether to allow noncitizens living in the U.S. legally to vote in municipal elections — such as for mayor, council members, and other local officials — in one of the latest attempts to grant voting rights to immigrants.
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In August 2008, a popular initiative supported by the socialists, the Green Party and the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions gained enough signatures (12,500) to amend the Bern Cantonal Constitution to allow each municipality to decide whether to grant voting rights to foreign residents. The subsequent referendum was rejected by voters on 26 September 2010.
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The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act allows U.S. citizens to vote from overseas, even if they have permanently left the United States. Since these citizens are no longer residents of a U.S. State but maintain their right to vote, legal scholars have therefore argued that United States Congress also has the authority to grant voting rights to residents of the District of Columbia.
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Hendricks adamantly opposed Radical Reconstruction. After the war he argued that the Southern states had never been out of the Union and were therefore entitled to representation in the U.S. Congress. Hendricks also maintained that Congress had no authority over the affairs of state governments. Hendricks voted against the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would, upon ratification, grant voting rights to males of all races and abolish slavery.
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Unlike the small elections in the Territories prior to the first general election in 1888, this was considered a general election, since it was based on the dissolution of the previous legislature. It was the smallest general election in Northwest Territories history. This was the first election in the Northwest Territories in which women had the right to vote. Female suffrage was permitted under the Northwest Territories Elections Ordinance of 1951, this was the last jurisdiction in Canada to grant voting rights to women.
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A key addition of the Acts included the creation of five military districts in the South, each commanded by a general, which would serve as the acting government for the region. In addition, Congress required that each state draft a new state constitution, which would have to be approved by Congress. The states also were required to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and grant voting rights to black men. President Andrew Johnson's vetoes of these measures were overridden by Congress.
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During the 1890s, however, many liberal politicians had withdrawn from the cause, expressing fears that women with the vote would naturally gravitate towards supporting conservative candidates. The women's movement claimed a number of smaller victories during this time: women were permitted to become members of school and child welfare boards and received the right to vote in local alcohol prohibition referendums. In 1896, Norwegian lawmakers granted voting rights to all taxpaying men, but again refused to grant voting rights to women. Two years later, men received universal suffrage.
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In 1945, he began a campaign for Canadian governments to grant voting rights to Chinese Canadians. These were granted federally and provincially by 1947, and municipally by 1949. After the Chinese Immigration Act was repealed in 1947, he became an important figure for the elimination of the remaining immigration restrictions in Canada, particularly regarding the separation of Chinese Canadian families as a result of those restrictions, and to seek redress for the head tax. He travelled to Ottawa annually from 1949 to 1959 to meet and lobby politicians, earning him fame.
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The suffrage amendment was approved in November 1893, making Colorado the second state to grant voting rights to women. Alongside Ida Clark DePriest, she organized the Colorado Colored Women's Republican Club to teach African-American women to be educated voters. While she identified most with the Republican Party, she wrote that "there should be thorough and systematic organization of the women of all parties." She established the Women's League in 1894 to inform black women how to vote, communicate the importance of voting, and communicate the nature of the issues.
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Regarding social issues of his era, Harrington's views on women's suffrage and prohibition caused surprise to many Marylanders. In a state that was widely considered to be "wet", or in favor of legal alcohol, Harrington caused a great deal of upheaval when he announced his support of prohibition, citing concerns for the common welfare. He also surprised his constituents with his support of the proposal to grant voting rights to women, even though he was believed to be against such an initiative. Harrington's term as governor ended on January 14, 1920, and afterwards he returned to his law practice.
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One of the last major campaigns that Stout participated in was the drive to grant voting rights to women. Stout had long been a supporter of this cause, having campaigned tirelessly for his own failed bill in 1878 and Julius Vogel's failed bill in 1887. He had also been highly active in the campaign to increase property rights for women, having been particularly concerned with the right of married women to keep property independently from their husbands. John Ballance had been a supporter of women's suffrage, although his attempts to pass a bill had been blocked by the conservative Legislative Council (the now-abolished upper house of Parliament).
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From its inception in 1854 to 1964, when Senate Republicans pushed hard for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against a filibuster by Senate Democrats, the GOP had a reputation for supporting blacks and minorities. In 1869, the Republican-controlled legislature in Wyoming Territory and its Republican governor John Allen Campbell made it the first jurisdiction to grant voting rights to women. In 1875, California swore in the first Hispanic governor, Republican Romualdo Pacheco. In 1916, Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman in Congress—and indeed the first woman in any high level government position. In 1928, New Mexico elected the first Hispanic U.S. Senator, Republican Octaviano Larrazolo.
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Article 9 of the Constitution of the Canton of Graubünden of 14 September 2003 enshrines Swiss citizens’ right to vote at cantonal level, but does not exclude this right being extended to foreigners, as it is up to the legislator to determine the details. No actual law was adopted to grant voting rights to foreigners. Article 9 also states that the municipalities have the discretion to decide (or not) to grant foreigners both the right to vote and the right to stand for election. Ten of the canton’s 208 municipalities have made use of this power: Bever, Bonaduz, Calfreise, Cazis, Conters im Prättigau, Fideris, Lüen, Masein, Portein (which merged into the municipality of Cazis on 1 January 2010) and Schnaus.
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The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1993 was the thirteenth Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Limassol, Cyprus, between 21 October 1993 and 25 October 1993, and was hosted by that country's President, Glafcos Clerides. The communique issued by Commonwealth leaders reiterated the organization's "support for the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and non-aligned status of the Republic of Cyprus" and urged compliance with United Nations Resolutions on Cyprus and the need for Turkish forces and settlers to withdraw from Northern Cyprus. The meeting also agreed to lift economic sanctions against South Africa in light of moves by the government to end apartheid and grant voting rights to the non-white majority but also agreed to continue its arms embargo until a new non-racial government was elected.
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