It turns out that the city of College Park did not have enough votes after all to grant voting rights to noncitizens, officials said Saturday. The College Park City Council voted 4-3 with one member abstaining Tuesday night on an amendment to the city’s charter that would allow noncitizens to vote in municipal elections. But charter amendments need six votes of the eight-member council, the city announced Saturday. That rule was changed in June, and the mayor and council members said they neglected to note that they needed six votes.
“We each accept our responsibility for not realizing the impact of the June charter amendment on Council procedures and we apologize to our residents,” the mayor and council said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the council would reconsider the idea of allowing noncitizens to vote. It plans to discuss the matter at its next work session on Tuesday.
Full Article: College Park vote on noncitizen voting rights was insufficient, city says – Baltimore Sun.