WASHINGTON — For the first time, D.C. non-citizens have the opportunity to vote in local elections.
Abel Amene and Shaghayegh Chris Rostampour, who asked to be referred to as Abel and Chris respectively, take this right seriously.
“It's the culmination of several years of work for me and advocacy for us for non-citizens to get the right to vote. So this is a monumental moment," Abel said.
He moved from Ethiopia with his family 25 years ago -- and has called D.C. home ever since.
Until the DC Council passed legislation in 2022 granting non-citizens the right to vote, he could never participate in local elections.
"It's quite amazing," Abel said.
He registered as soon as the law took effect and even ran to be his neighborhood's Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and won (unopposed). That makes him the city's first-ever non-citizen ANC.
"ANC meetings are about things like, you know, licenses and, and zoning and very micro, like hyper local issues, right? Things like trash collection, and the rat problems and things like that. And these are things that actually impact people's day to day lives," Abel said. "And that's where I wanted to participate."
Abel said he wanted to help give a voice to other immigrants, like the owners of Mita Ethio-Japanese Cafe, where we all met up.
Chris hopes to make a positive change in their own right. They moved from Iran in 2018 for grad school at Brandeis University and then to D.C. for work.
"I came here for school. I went to school, and I studied conflict resolution. So I want to be able to use what I have learned. And if I am not able to voice what I have learned about coexistence, about, you know, people living in harmony, even in my own neighborhood, then I would feel completely powerless," they said. "So I think that voting would make me feel like I'm contributing what I think was, like, a collection of great lessons that I learned in school, and it would feel like giving back at the same time."
As the two of them approached the West End Neighborhood Library Sunday to vote early, they reflected on what this moment meant to them.
“I feel very excited. I actually when I got my ballot in the mail, and I saw the little 'I Voted' sticker I got very emotional about it," Chris said. "I see it not just as a right to vote, but sort of as a responsibility about the place you live in.”
There are some, however, who would rather they not take up that responsibility - namely some members of Congress.
Last week, 52 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting to overturn the DC law granting non-citizens the right to vote in local elections for the second time, with a margin of 262 to 143.
The House voted to do the same last year, but the initiative died in the Senate.
“I like to say that non citizen voting is actually as American as apple pie. It's been happening for centuries as part of the fabric of America," Abel said. "We pay taxes. I could be drafted…so I'm not really sure where the the controversy is around. We can't participate in federal elections…all we want to vote for is, our ANCs and our council members.”
Chris said they don't believe non-citizens would risk their citizenship status to try to illegally vote in a federal election.
“A person who is either a student and on a visa or on a work visa, or is on the path to citizenship or has applied for asylum or is undocumented, wouldn't really risk registering it when it's illegal to vote in federal elections and risk, everything that they've done, risk, all the sacrifices that they've made to cast a vote a ballot that would not be counted," they said.
Chris and Abel both said they have been having trouble even convincing eligible non-citizens to register to vote in D.C.'s local elections.
"They're almost like, 'That can't be, are you sure?' And still doubt," Abel said. "I was just showing the owner of this place, like, yes, it's actually true and showing them documents, and there's still hesitation. And it's because of, you know, years and years of fear mongering around this issue. But also just lack of that information being spread out."
As of Wednesday, May 29, the Board of Elections said 523 non-citizens have registered to vote. 310 registered Democrat, 28 Republican, 16 Statehood Green, and 169 Independent.
The approximately one-third of non-citizen voters who have registered as Independents cannot vote in the primary. They will have to wait for the general election.
When they do vote, they'll receive a special ballot that says "Local" at the top and does not include any federal offices.
When it comes to the issues they care about -- there are a multitude.
"One of the primary issues for me is housing, the cost of housing in DC, especially in my Ward, Ward 2, and in my neighborhood it's really high... The cost of rent is going up...whereas a lot of salaries are staying the same," Chris said. "There are a lot of other issues, and it's interesting, because I have maybe a 10 minute walk from my place to the office. But in that 10 minute walk, there's so many things that I noticed. So I go to, I work in policy on like a larger scale, professionally, but then I see a lot of smaller scale policy issues, from homelessness, to crime, to pollution, to traffic."
Abel agrees that housing is top priority, but he has noticed other issues in his capacity as an ANC.
“The biggest issue in our neighborhood is the cleanliness of the neighborhood and and how the lack of that contributes to a rat problem," he said. "Another issue is transportation and access to transportation. …and a lot of issues that we see like housing, food insecurity all these things that people in low income face, immigrants are actually at the forefront and and the most impacted. So, when we don't have the people that are the most impacted participating in these elections, we're not getting the full picture of what we need to change."
Non-citizens who do want to register to vote need to have lived in DC for 30 days and not maintain voting status in another country.
When registering at a voting center, bring proof of residence.