Unpacking the Complexities of “Alien Suffrage” in American History

Ron Hayduk, San Francisco State University

Most Americans are surprised to learn that noncitizens legally voted in forty states from 1776 to 1926. In fact, noncitizens voted in local, state and even national elections, and immigrants could also hold office in many jurisdictions. These practices flowed from the fact that voting rights in the early American republic were initially limited to white men with property, not citizenship. Yet, while the legal history of alien suffrage is well documented, gaps remain in the literature about the nature of alien suffrage. How extensive was alien suffrage and what were its impacts? This paper addresses this question by examining the rise and fall of alien suffrage in twenty states, using a broad range of both primary and secondary sources. The paper demonstrates that noncitizens did vote, and where and when the foreign-born comprised a significant portion of the population, their votes had important impacts that ranged from influencing election outcomes to advancing the political incorporation of European immigrants. Yet, the history of alien suffrage is also fraught. Alien suffrage was used by dominant political factions to block and delay the enfranchisement of blacks and women and thereby buttressed the privileging and power of propertied white, male Protestants for decades. Moreover, alien suffrage was used by Congress and leaders in emerging states as an incentive for immigrants to settle new territories and new states, displacing Native Americans and fostering a form of colonial settlerism. More positively, alien suffrage helped facilitate voter participation and eventual citizenship for millions of European immigrants. Noncitizen voters helped determine winners from losers in elections and fostered immigrant incorporation, before it became a casualty of anti-immigrant furor at the turn of the 20th century. The paper concludes by exploring implications and lessons this history holds for contemporary scholars and policy makers.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 194. Fighting for the Rights of Citizens