No taxation without representation?

Residents in Boston, New York, and other cities are reviving America's famous battle cry for political revolution. In the midst of a stormy national debate on immigration, they're challenging the idea of excluding noncitizens on a front that's less noticed but equally contentious.

They want immigrants to vote.

While that idea may seem outrageous to many, it's less radical than it sounds to its supporters. They want to limit such voting to local races and referendums and, in most areas, to legal immigrants.

Supporters argue that noncitizens are long-term residents who care about the same local issues that citizens do: good schools, safe streets, reliable trash collection. Many pay taxes. Some are US military veterans.

"They're living there, they have their kids in school, they're working, they're contributing to the local economy," says Kathleen Coll, a cultural anthropologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. "They're full, complete local citizens [who are] affected by local policies."

Six Maryland communities already allow the practice, Chicago lets legal immigrants vote for school board members.

State lawmakers nix local efforts

Similar efforts have been tried elsewhere, but they failed or stalled because state legislatures didn't approve. Now, the movement is gaining traction again, mainly in liberal-leaning communities. For example:

• Five of 13 Boston city councilors said in April they would support a measure to enfranchise legal immigrants who intend to become citizens. It could increase Boston's pool of 280,000 voters by almost one-third.

• In March, Newton, Mass., joined three Boston-area towns that in recent years have sent similar "home rule petitions" to the state legislature, which must approve them before they can take effect. Newton's proposal would apply to legal immigrants who sign an affidavit saying they plan to naturalize.

• In New York, about 15 of 51 city councilors now favor a 2006 bill to enfranchise immigrants who have been lawfully present for at least six months. Almost 70 organizations have joined the New York Coalition to Expand Voting Rights. Noncitizens make up 15 to 35 percent of the population in the city's districts.

• In 2006, the aldermen of Carrboro, N.C., unanimously passed a measure limited to legal immigrants en route to naturalization; it wasn't approved in the state legislature.

"We thought that extending voting rights in Carrboro demonstrated their participation in the town," explains Alderman Dan Coleman, who supported the move. "We [also] want to encourage their engagement in our community through the practice of voting. We see the vote as a kind of gateway."

Similar efforts in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have stalled.

Critics find the idea ludicrous.

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