voting rights haitians
Voters cast their ballots at privacy booths during early voting at the Brooklyn Museum, Tuesday Oct. 27, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

NEW YORK — A bill allowing some non-citizen residents of New York City to vote in local elections became law, one month after its Dec. 9 passage by the City Council. If there are no legal challenges, the new law could allow more than 23,000 Haitians in the city to vote for elected leaders like the mayor, city council and comptroller, but not for state or federal representatives. 

“We immigrants definitely have our say on politics,” said Jude Berlus, a resident of Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, noting the preferences that some fellow immigrants could not previously express at the ballot box.

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Sam is a reporter for The Haitian Times and a 2020 Report for America corps member. He has covered Haiti and its diaspora since 2018. His work has also appeared in USA Today, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Haiti Liberte. Sam can be reached at sam@haitiantimes.com or on Twitter @sambojarski.