Montpelier ballot to include non-U.S. citizen voting question

Voters in Montpelier will get to decide whether non-U.S. citizens should be allowed to vote in local elections.

City officials confirmed this week that they received the required number of petition signatures to put the question on the November ballot.

After fielding questions about why legal residents who aren't U.S. citizens can't vote, City Clerk John Odum this spring organized a public meeting to gauge local support for the issue. Odum said that after learning that Chicago, San Francisco and parts of Maryland allow it in some local races, he felt Montpelier should talk about it.

The city of Winooski, which had been considering a similar measure, this week announced it was not going to go ahead with a vote, but instead will study the issue further.

If approved in Montpelier, state lawmakers would need to approve the charter change.