And other cities have already instituted similar policies.
If the immigrant voting rights initiative is approved, Cambridge will join a handful of cities--including New York and Chicago--where non-citizens are allowed to vote in local elections.
But some cited this as just the type of precedent Cambridge should strive to avoid, saying it's made life easier for illegal immigrants, rather than empowering the legal aliens it was designed to help.
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"It's just another incentive to them," Downing says. "What you're proposing to do is to dilute my vote. I think it's improper and dangerous."