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October 17, 2023 <br />Santa Ana City Council <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Re: Support and Amendments for Agenda Item #27 - Placing Noncitizen <br />Voting on the November 2024 General Election Ballot <br />Dear Mayor Valerie Amezcua and Santa Ana City Council Members, <br />We write as Santa Ana Families for Fair Elections (SAFFE), a coalition of local residents and <br />community organizations dedicated to advancing democratic inclusion in our community. <br />We are enthusiastic to see the City Council move forward with exploring an expansion to the <br />franchise in local elections, and we are thankful to city staff for their work drafting resolution <br />and ballot measure language. These are important first steps to ensuring that all residents are <br />able to make their voices heard at the ballot box. After all, it remains deeply undemocratic <br />and unfair that nearly a third of voting -age residents in Santa Ana cannot participate in the <br />election of the city council members who govern the lives of all residents in the city, regardless <br />of federal citizenship status.' <br />We urge the City Council to amend the current draft resolution language to further align with <br />the spirit and principles of the original proposal made by Councilmembers Hernandez and <br />Vazquez and supported by community members. We have attached a version of the <br />resolution language with suggested amendments for the City Council's convenience. <br />Sincerely, <br />Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice <br />VietRISE <br />El Centro Cultural de Mexico <br />Orange County Justice Fund <br />Santa Ana Collaborative for Responsible Development (SACReD) <br />Latino Health Access <br />Korean Resource Center <br />Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD) <br />United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 <br />' U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2021 5-Year Estimate, 2022. <br />