Let’s Strengthen Democracy
Support Noncitizen Voting Rights for Frederick City Residents

Sign and share the online petition

In November 2023, the Frederick City Charter Review Commission recommended that non-citizens be
granted the right to vote in city elections. If approved by the Board of Aldermen, the city will gain 6,000
new voters.

Reasons to support non-citizen voting in local elections
• Voting rights help to further civil rights as well as social and economic equality.
• Without voting rights, noncitizens are at risk of discrimination and bias because policy makers
will not be well acquainted with the needs of this group. No voting rights limits spaces and ways
that noncitizens can challenge xenophobia and discrimination in important areas such as
employment, housing, education, health care, welfare, and criminal justice.
• Voting is key to having a politically engaged and active community.
• We are stronger as a society when everyone participates.
• Voting extends the visibility and voices of immigrants making the government more
representative, responsive, and accountable.
• Voting fosters a sense of belonging.
• Immigrants are our neighbors who pay taxes, attend school, have children who attend school,
who go to church or other religious services, who own businesses, own houses, live, work,
commune in our community every single day. They should have a say in the way their local
government works.