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Can non‑citizens vote in local school board elections?

Question asked:

“Non-citizens can vote in local elections for school board or other non-federal electios legally.”
Partially true
Confidence: High Checked on August 30, 2026

Summary

Non‑citizens are legally allowed to vote in a small number of local contests, such as San Francisco’s Board of Education elections and certain municipal elections in Washington, D.C. However, they remain ineligible to vote in the vast majority of local, state, and all federal elections across the United States. The statement is therefore true only in limited jurisdictions, not universally.

Sources 60 searched

sf.gov
  • Non-citizen voting rights in local Board of Education elections | SF.gov

    Current local law allows certain non-citizens to vote in San Francisco’s Board of Education (School Board) elections. This law does not allow individuals to vote in any other local, state, or federal election. Get a verification letter: Upon a voter's request, the Department can provide a ...

immigrants.sf.gov
usa.gov
  • Who can and cannot vote | USAGov

    You can vote in U.S. federal, state, and local elections if you: Are a U.S. citizen (some areas allow non-citizens to vote in local elections only), including:

census.gov
nytimes.com
npr.org
  • Experts raise alarms over Census Bureau report Trump is touting on noncitizen voting

    A highly unusual Census Bureau report that President Trump is using to reup dubious claims of widespread illegal voting by non-U.S. citizens has ties to a Trump-aligned think tank, NPR has learned. In a social media post Tuesday, Trump claimed that the bureau's initial analysis of more than 128 million voter records "proves that over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally...

snopes.com
en.wikipedia.org
  • Non-citizen suffrage in the United States - Wikipedia

    Non-citizen residents of DC may vote in local matters (such as mayor or referendums) but they may not vote in federal elections (such as US president or DC's house delegate). As of April 30, 2024, out of 450,070 registered voters, 372 were noncitizens. Maryland ended noncitizen voting rights for state and federal elections in 1851, but its constitution recognizes the autonomy of local municipalities ...

bipartisanpolicy.org
  • Four Things to Know about Noncitizen Voting

    Nevertheless, given that only 44 of the 1,940 later voted, the clerical error could not have affected the outcome of any elections in a state that, in 2024, cast more than 2.3 million ballots.

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