The New York City's Election Committee plans to ask Governor George Pataki to let permanent residents have the right to vote in the city's local elections.

Chinese residents' reactions were at two extremes.

Some people believed that this would allow more people to participate in civic affairs.

However, there were also people who thought that it would conflict with the Constitution and that it would not be very effective. They thought that noncitizens should not have a say in the elections of public officials.

The Election Committee plans to ask the Governor this week a to support non-citizens voting for the mayor, city council, and other local level government officials. In addition, it also wanted noncitizens to express their opinions on public policies by participating in referendums.

The Committee believed that this would increase the level of participation among local residents and their interaction with the local government.

According to the 2000 census, approximately 1.6 million people in the city were born in foreign countries and had not become citizens yet. Although the government had not commented on the possibility of noncitizens receiving the right to vote, many proponents of the plan all believed that it would give 1 million people the right to vote and to fight for their rights.

A spokesperson in the Mayor's office said that the Mayor had not expressed his position on the plan.

A spokesperson in the Governor's office said that they would seriously consider this proposition.

City Councilman John Liu stated his support for this plan. He believed that those who reside in New York City and paid taxes to the city should all deserve the right to vote. According to Liu, giving noncitizens the right to vote was not unusual since non-citizen parents could vote in their schools' board of education elections. He also said that he too had originally planned to propose this plan to the City Council.

There were also people who were skeptical of the plan and afraid that giving noncitizens the right to vote could violate the Constitution.

Some Republicans believed the right to elect public officials belonged to citizens only.

Noncitizens used to have the right to vote. However in 1928 after a large increase in immigrants the United States started to forbid permanent residents from voting. Recently, several cities started to let permanent residents vote again. Among those cities is Takoma Park.