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Santa Ana Mayor and City Council Page 2 intent to confer charter cities with the same expansive authority over school board elections that they have over municipal elections. Id. at 251-53, 256. Put another way, the court held that charter cities can expand the vote in school district elections precisely because they have indisputably broad authority over municipal elections. Charter cities' authority to determine who may participate in elections for municipal officers is even clearer. See id. at 256-57. City staff appear to be interpreting Lacy narrowly. In the staff report for Tuesday's meeting, I the City Attorney quoted language from the opinion that, read alone, can be misconstrued as suggesting that Santa Ana's authority to expand the electorate for municipal elections is unsettled. But the thrust of the paragraph from which the quotes came, rather than limiting charter cities' power to determine who may vote, warns that cities in exercising their power over local elections —must nevertheless be mindful not to unduly infringe on or narrow the right to vote: This conclusion does not leave charter cities with limitless authority to determine the electorate for school board elections or, for that matter, the election of other municipal officials. "[E]ven if a given matter is deemed to be a municipal affair, a charter city's regulation remains subject to the various guarantees and requirements of the state and federal Constitutions." [citation omitted]. Our conclusion leaves intact the application of other constitutional "guarantees and requirements, "for example, the state and federal equal protection clauses .... Similarly, as Proposition N expanded the franchise, we do not opine on charter cities' ability to narrow it. We decide today solely the issue before us: the Constitution confers on the City the authority to expand the electorate for school board elections to include noncitizen parents or guardians of City children. Id. at 259-60 (emphasis added). In sum, the holding and reasoning in Lacy firmly support the legal authority of charter cities to expand the electorate to noncitizen residents in municipal elections. The Lacy court unequivocally held that the Constitution's voter qualification requirements are not a roadblock to expanding the electorate, reasserted that the Home Rule Provision gives charter cities like Santa Ana broad authority over municipal elections, and emphasized that this authority "permits the voters of each charter city to determine whether [noncitizen voting] is good policy for their city or not." Id. at 243. There is thus no reason to deny Santa Ana voters the opportunity to decide whether it makes sense to expand the electorate in their local elections. Santa Ana Has a Roadmap for Successfully Implementing Noncitizen Voting The process of creating San Francisco's noncitizen voting program shows that it is possible to develop a successful program when a jurisdiction is proactive and committed to working collaboratively with the immigrant community and nonprofit partners. Since the adoption of Proposition N, San Francisco has been working closely with advocates to ensure that noncitizen residents are protected and can make an informed decision for themselves about whether to vote.' For example, San Francisco has registration forms and ballots specific to noncitizens so that those residents only register and vote in authorized elections.' The San Francisco Department of Elections also provides voters with a "Right to p City y .h //: dl td dsn p,trcllll� �;ov.coi:llu/�porVaI/viewer Nov. 7, 2023 Staff Report re Item #39, CI Attorney Office at 2, id' .. h akc .i:.�'.1j.�.:.:..::::0. 2 Ron Hayduk, Megan Dias, and Olivia Marti, Immigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco, Chinese for Affirmative Action and Immigrant Voting Parent Collaborative at 17-25, (Sept. 2023), htru p,,................................................... e y Z�Yp,z �r�P2�nu/rA Flo a8s/2Q;12 ;/QD 3/2 ; CAA j)orV. -C 2 1pajf (providing an overview of the efforts between San Francisco and community advocates to develop noncitizen voting program). s See, e.g., Non -citizen Voter Registration Form for Nov. 2019 San Franscisco School Board Election, hutrp�://�l'�;lec.tra��n faaw a» /sits /deli r�lu/lily /I a�c:rA�;u,��nu /�Te,ur�n /�T2; N/oter%2uDRe1;iS11_dui0D 1ic.11110D )df-