Right of foreigners to vote
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The right to vote, which makes citizenship, is reserved in most countries to those who possess the nationality of the country in question.
In some cases in the United States, some states granted voting rights to foreigners. Hence, conceptions of supranational citizenship, the US revolutionary principle of "no taxation without representation", or incitations for immigration in new territories (the "Conquest of the Far West"), have been reasons to grant this right to those normally excluded from it (note the distinction between a foreigner, who does not have the nationality of the country he resides in although he may have the right of abode and may actually be born in the country in question, and an immigrant, who may either legally reside in the territory or be an illegal alien, but who might also have the nationality of the country in question, if he was beforehand expatriated or lived most, if not all, his life abroad).
In the United Kingdom, citizens of the Commonwealth countries and of the Republic of Ireland have always had full voting rights at all levels and can be candidates; they are not regarded in law as aliens.
The 1992 Maastricht Treaty has imposed reciprocity inside the European Union concerning voting rights in local elections, but this obligation already existed beforehand for the European elections. In several European states, the public debate on the right of foreigners to vote has therefore been renewed, as some foreign residents had the right to vote (European foreign residents) while others, non-Europeans, did not. Luxembourg, Lithuania, Slovenia and Belgium thus extended the right to vote, in different manners, to all foreign residents (which was already the case in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Netherlands).
The debate also exists in the United States, where many federal states have admitted during decades foreigners' right to vote, the last state to repeal it having been Arkansas in 1926. Maryland's Constitution recognizes to municipalities autonomy on the subject, and several cities, including Takoma Park (17,000 inhabitants), introduced it in 1991. Two cities in Massachusetts, Amherst and Cambridge, tried to do so in 1998 but were blocked by the state's assembly. Law projects have also been introduced in Texas (where it was in force until 1921) and in California, and many politicians are in favor of it in New York.
In Switzerland, the matter also rests on the federal authorities. Six cantons already recognized it, including one, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, which accords to each municipality the authority to decide on the subject. Some referendums unsuccessfully took place in other cantons.
In France, the Socialist Party has been talking about it since the early 1980s, but it wasn't until the late 1990s-early 2000s that some local referendums on the subject were organized, for example by the mayor of Saint-Denis, Didier Paillard (Communist Party). The law remained though.
The European Parliament, the European Council and the Baltic Sea States Conference have produced various recommendations in favor of the introduction of the right to vote and of eligibility to all foreign residents in local elections. A ad hoc Convention from the European Council is opened to signatures and ratifications.
In Chile, foreigners that have lived for five years or more on the country can enroll to vote. Once enrolled, voting is compulsory on all elections.
