Though not universal, there was enough support on the City Council Tuesday night to have staffers spend more time gathering information and suggestions for how Santa Ana could ask voters if noncitizens should also be allowed to cast ballots in local elections.

Councilmembers Johnathan Hernandez and Benjamin Vazquez requested their colleagues consider putting on the November 2024 ballot the question of allowing residents who are not U.S. citizens to vote in local elections.

Noncitizen residents make up about 24% of Santa Ana’s population, they said, and immigrant residents, including noncitizen residents, in Orange County contributed $10.5 billion in taxes in 2018. But noncitizens can’t vote in the local elections that affect their everyday lives, they pointed out.

It isn’t the first time Santa Ana leaders have considered extending voting rights to the city’s noncitizen residents.

“America has always been on the side of progress, equity and change. Santa Ana has previously considered measures that would permit all of its residents to engage in political process,” Hernandez said. “The question that we’re asking today is to allow our voters to decide whether to support this with a yes-vote at the ballot or a no-vote.”

Supporters argued at the council meeting that all residents should have a say in local affairs since they contribute to the city’s economy and community.

“Right now we have one out of every four residents in Santa Ana who pay taxes, but we don’t have the political representation that we deserve,” Carlos Perea, executive director at the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, said.

Voting is the earned right of those who are U.S. citizens, not every resident, opponents argued.

“Both the California Secretary of State and the California Constitution state that voting is reserved for U.S. citizens 18 years and older. No other people are authorized under those entities for voting,” one resident told the council. “In addition to not being constitutional according to the state constitution, allowing noncitizens to vote is bad policy.”

Last month, a state appeals court rejected a challenge to the measure approved by San Francisco voters in 2016 that now allows noncitizens to cast ballots in school board elections.

The idea of noncitizens voting in Santa Ana has been brought before the City Council before, in 2022, but was shelved when City Manager Kristine Ridge told councilmembers legal and a implementation questions could not be answered in the time left then to place such a measure on the next ballot council members wanted to target.

“My advice from the last time has not changed in terms of you really needing to give us time to analyze a lot of factors,” Sonia Carvalho, Santa Ana’s city attorney, told the council Tuesday, adding that she has many questions about this matter. “When you make policy, your policy is only as good as we have directions and can enforce that for you. How are you going to register noncitizen voters? Where are they going to go? I can guarantee you that the Orange County Registrar might not do this for you. How are you going to reconcile the ballots for local, state and federal elections? Overall, what are the costs, what are the staffing?”

The number of unknowns out there – including how the city could expand voting legally and would people’s ability to apply for citizenship later be affected – were too great of a barrier for Santa Ana to jump on this change, Councilmember David Penaloza said, recommending instead the creation of an ad hoc committee to address this and other November 2024 ballot measures brought to the council.

City staffers are expected to return to the City Council with their report report at the Oct. 17 or Nov. 7 meeting.